Intruders
by AmunRa
Summary: Complete: Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba are not themselves. The reason leads Kaiba to confront an old enemy, and leads Yami back to his ancient home to confront his past.
1. Memories

Greetings!  
  
Well, I did mention that I was going to start another story, so here it is. The premise of it is rather strange, but hopefully not too strange. *crosses fingers*  
  
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is owned by its respective owners. I'm only borrowing the characters for the moment and I promise to return them at the end of the story.  
  
Enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part I: Memories  
  
The boy ran as fast as his legs could carry him.  
  
He didn't know where he was going; all he knew was that he had to get away from his pursuers. He shouldn't have snuck out, not at this time of night. All his life, he'd been told that it wasn't safe for him to wander around town, especially not by himself. He hadn't listened, though. He'd wanted to see what it was like on the outside, so he'd snuck out by himself. Now he wished he'd just stayed home.  
  
"No matter how fast you go, you're not going to be able to get away from us!"  
  
The voice taunted from behind, but he ignored it. He wasn't weak. He'd been trained to defend himself and he would do so, if he could not outrun them. For now, all he wanted was to get away.  
  
He saw a corridor come up ahead and he immediately took it, thinking that if he could only get lost in the shadows, they'd never find him. He sighed in relief as he turned into the corridor, welcoming the darkness. His relief was short lived, however, when a strong pair of arms encircled him. He kicked with his right leg and was rewarded with a grunt. The arms let go of him and he turned to run the other way, when he found himself face to face with the man that had been chasing him.  
  
Before he could react, a strong hand impacted with his face, sending him to the ground. His vision blacked out for a moment and when he came to, he was face down on the soft sand. Hands were tearing at his clothing and he panicked. He tried to get up, but someone was holding his arms above his head and whoever was tearing at his clothing had his legs pinned down. He opened his mouth to scream, but a sweaty, dirty hand was placed over his mouth.  
  
"Don't even try it, pretty boy. You're ours."  
  
He suddenly felt a chill over skin that should have been covered, while hands roamed over his thighs. The hands were rough, leaving bruises wherever they touched. The boy could do nothing. He never ceased to struggle, however, even when it became apparent that he would not win.  
  
"Let's see how the pharaoh's little boy likes associating with us commoners."  
  
The boy held his breath, knowing what was to come. His father had warned him about the possibility of this many times, and it was his fault that he was about to become a victim. He should have listened; he shouldn't have left the palace. Knowing that this was his doing didn't lessen the impact, though. He was scared. Nothing, no amount of self recrimination, would change that.  
  
"Let's see how you commoners like being put to death for assaulting the son of the pharaoh."  
  
The boy released the breath he'd been holding at the sound of the familiar voice. He heard the sounds of weapons being drawn and could only lay there, shaking in fear and shame at what he'd allowed to happen to him.  
  
"I suggest you release my son immediately."  
  
"Why," the man pinning the boy's legs said. "You're going to kill us anyway."  
  
There was silence, and the boy began to wonder if his father had changed his mind about saving him and had left. Before he could react, the sound of an arrow being fired was heard, and a heavy body landed on top of him, completely covering him up. The weight was strong, pushing his face into the soft sand below him. He struggled to catch a breath, but found that he was inhaling sand instead.  
  
After a few agonizing moments, the weight was removed and he was hauled up, only to come face to face with his father's angry gaze. Beside him he could clearly see the dead bodies of his two assailants.  
  
"I am sorry, father. I disobeyed. If they had assaulted me, it would have been my fault." He bowed his head. "I am not fit to be pharaoh."  
  
His father's gaze softened, and the older man smiled sadly.  
  
"You disobeyed, my son, but this is not your fault." The older man took off his cloak and wrapped the boy in it. "As for you being pharaoh, you are still too young. Why don't we wait and see?"  
  
****  
  
Yugi Moto's eyes shot open and he sat upright in his bed. He was breathing hard and tears had pooled in his eyes. He closed them and the tears fell down his cheeks and landed on his bedspread. He was shivering, and he wrapped his arms around himself to try and control the shudders that were passing through him.  
  
"I am sorry, aibou. I should have been able to shield you from that."  
  
Yugi looked to one side to find Yami sitting on the edge of his bed staring intently at him. Yami's eyes were wide, and Yugi could see the remnants of fear in them.  
  
"You remembered that, didn't you? You were dreaming?"  
  
Yami nodded. "I have had that dream several times in the past few months. It is rather disturbing. It is the only thing I recall, however. Anything before and after is a blank."  
  
Yugi chuckled humorlessly. "Scary as hell is more like it," he commented, still recalling how vivid everything had been. "Everything was so real, Yami, it was as if I were there."  
  
"I know. It is a shame that the only memories I have of my past life involve one crisis or another."  
  
Yugi nodded his agreement. "At least you got to see your father in this one."  
  
Yami smiled sadly. "Yes. It is good to know his face."  
  
**~~**  
  
****  
  
'I should have cleaned my shoes. If he sees that they're dirty, he's likely to extend this little 'lesson'.'  
  
The stray thought entered the boy's brain as he examined his shoes, noting that there were scuff marks on them. Behind him, he could hear the riding crop as it beat against his back, but years of his adoptive father's 'lessons' had taught him to tune out the pain. He'd feel it later, of that he had no doubt. At least then, he'd be able to control how he let it out. He'd more than likely be alone as well, which would ensure that no one would see him show weakness.  
  
Suddenly, he was turned around and slammed into the wall he'd been leaning against. A hiss of pain escaped his lips as he impacted as the extent of the damage to his back became known to him. He berated himself for having reacted that much. He was better than this, after all. It had become a game to him. The less he reacted when his adoptive father beat him, the angrier said man became. The boy liked that. It gave him a tiny amount of control in an otherwise uncontrollable situation.  
  
"So you do feel pain, Seto. I was beginning to wonder if I had to continue this until I got a reaction out of you."  
  
Seto looked up at his adoptive father, his face blank, devoid of emotion. He'd practiced this expression in front of his mirror every day, until he was satisfied with it. He'd practiced it with everyone around him as well, and he'd managed to fool them all into thinking that no matter what they did to him, he didn't care. It was the only way he'd managed to survive life in the Kaiba household.  
  
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"  
  
"I'm sorry, father. I should not have fallen asleep during my session with the tutor."  
  
The apology came out flat, which angered Gozaburo.  
  
"You think that in a battle of wits, you're going to beat me? You're wrong, Seto." Gozaburo said.  
  
He grabbed Seto by the front of his shirt and dragged him out of the library. Gozaburo walked fast, which meant that Seto had to walk twice as fast to catch up to the much taller man. They headed for the stairs, and Gozaburo raced up them, dragging Seto along. Seto had to bite his lip to keep in the moans of pain that wanted to escape his lips, since every step was sheer agony.  
  
When Gozaburo did this, he'd usually finish and then leave Seto to get to his room by himself. Seto would then clean the wounds, drench them in antiseptic, bandage them, take one of the sleeping pills that one of the doctors had been kind enough to leave him without Gozaburo's knowledge, and then crawl into bed to sleep off most of the pain. That routine had already been broken and Seto couldn't help but fear what Gozaburo was going to do.  
  
They reached Seto's room in record time. Gozaburo immediately dragged Seto to the closet, where he took out one of his white business suits.  
  
"Get dressed!"  
  
Seto caught the suit and stared at it. "What?"  
  
"You heard me, get dressed!"  
  
Seto inwardly sighed. He undressed in front of his adoptive father, putting on the slacks first. When he went to put on the coat, he stopped.  
  
"The blood is going to seep through the coat," he said calmly, as if he were stating any other fact.  
  
Gozaburo frowned, and then made his way to Seto's bureau, where he took out a black undershirt.  
  
"Put this on underneath the coat."  
  
Seto did as he was told, while Gozaburo watched him. When he was finished dressing, Seto walked to his closet and pulled out one last item of clothing. It was a deep purple trench coat. It was long and covered most of him. He'd seen it in one of the shops in town and he'd bought it during one of Gozaburo's last business trips, even though the trench coat wasn't usually his style. Seto didn't like wearing too many layers and the coat seemed rather bulky. Right now, however, the trench coat was perfect. If the white coat of the suit were to become stained with blood, the deep purple color of the trench coat would cover it. He put it on and walked out of the closet.  
  
Gozaburo raised an eyebrow when he saw the coat, but said nothing. Instead, he once again grabbed Seto's arm and dragged him out of his room. Before long, they were walking into Mokuba's room. Seto's heart began to pound in fear at whatever Gozaburo had in store for them both.  
  
Mokuba was lying on his bed reading when they walked in. His eyes brightened when he saw Seto, but darkened just a little bit when he saw Gozaburo.  
  
"Mokuba, get dressed!"  
  
Mokuba watched them carefully, before nodding.  
  
"Where are we going?" the boy asked.  
  
"Do you remember that carnival you said you wanted to go to?"  
  
At the question, Mokuba's eyes widened. He nodded.  
  
"Well, Seto talked me into taking the both of you, so hurry up and get dressed," the man replied, as he patted Seto's back.  
  
It took everything Seto had not to cry out at the pain the man was inflicting.  
  
"Big brother, you're the greatest!" Mokuba exclaimed.  
  
Mokuba ran up to Seto and wrapped his arms around him, hugging him tightly. Seto's vision blurred slightly at the renewed pain, but he held it together. When Mokuba released him, he managed to clear his face of any traces of pain and smile. Mokuba smiled back, and then ran to his closet to change.  
  
"Do you still think you can beat me at my own game, Seto?"  
  
Seto looked up at Gozaburo, whose expression was one of triumph. His heart sank as he realized that he had lost. This was his punishment. Gozaburo was going to force him to take Mokuba out, when all he wanted was to crawl into bed and not move for a few days. He hurt, and Gozaburo knew that further motion would only aggravate the wounds, causing more pain. Gozaburo also new that Seto wouldn't want Mokuba to worry, so he'd have to pretend that everything was fine, even if he felt as if he were ready to drop.  
  
Gozaburo reached out and put his hand on Seto's cheek, forcing the boy too look at him. He leaned forward until his lips were next to Seto's ear.  
  
"Let's see how good of a pretender you really are."  
  
****  
  
Seto Kaiba jerked awake, fear clutching at his heart as he saw the familiar, dark surroundings. His back hurt, and he reached behind to rest his hand upon his bare back, feeling the raised welts of the scars he'd acquired that day. The sleep still muddling his sharp mind dissipated, making him realize that even though he was still in the same room he'd always occupied in the Kaiba household, he was no longer under Gozaburo's control. The man was dead, as he should be.  
  
He sat up in the bed and shuddered, remembering the rest of that dreadful day. Mokuba had a lot of fun at the carnival. Kaiba had done his best to be the playful older brother, letting his brother know nothing of what had happened at the house before they left. The trip had been cut short, however, when Kaiba had passed out. When he'd woken up, he'd been in bed with Mokuba lying beside him. He'd been feverish and in a lot of pain, but had told Mokuba only that he was coming down with the flu. He'd found out from Gozaburo later that he'd passed out from blood loss, and that two of the cuts on his back had become infected.  
  
Kaiba shuddered again at the way Gozaburo's face had looked that night when the man had been telling him all of this. It was almost as if the man had been proud that he'd been able to sustain the farce for as long as he had. Before he'd left, Gozaburo had said that Kaiba was now ready for the presidency at Kaiba Corp. and had appointed him president at the next board meeting. At the time, Kaiba had felt repulsed that the man had gone to such lengths to test him, but at the same time, had felt proud that he'd been able to accomplish what he'd wanted since the day he'd found out Gozaburo was going to visit the orphanage. Now, Kaiba wondered just how much of himself, of his soul, he'd given up in the process.  
  
He didn't have a chance to further examine his life because the sound of glass shattering to his left drew his attention. Kaiba immediately ducked, expecting something else to fly through the window. When nothing came, he immediately got up and turned on the lights, only to find a red brick lying on the floor in the middle of his bedroom.  
  
"That's odd," he said to himself as he walked closer to it.  
  
When he reached it, he realized that there was an envelope attached to it. He reached out to retrieve the envelope only, leaving the brick where it had fallen. The envelope was addressed to him in a very informal manner, with only his first name neatly printed on the white paper. Frowning, he opened the envelope, took out the crisp, white sheet of paper and began to read the typed note.  
  
~You think you won, but you're wrong. I taught you everything you know, Seto, don't forget. You will never be able to beat me. Since by now I have no doubt you know who I am, come to the address listed on the bottom of the page. Come alone and come tonight. I will be waiting.  
  
"Father"~  
  
Kaiba's blood ran cold when he saw the way the note had been signed. This had to be a very sick joke, and whoever had done this was going to pay dearly when he got his hands on them.  
  
"Mr. Kaiba, are you alright?"  
  
Kaiba turned to see the head of his security, plus two other guards, come into his room.  
  
"I'm fine," he stated, not bothered by the fact that he was standing in the middle of his bedroom wearing only his boxers. "Did you happen to see who got close enough to the house to throw a brick through a second story window?" His tone was fierce, and the guard cringed.  
  
"No, sir. We were alerted to the break in when the security alarm went off from the broken window. We didn't see anyone."  
  
Kaiba clenched his jaw. What did he pay these idiots for? He walked to his closet and threw the door open. Quickly, he put on a pair of pants and a white shirt, picked up his white trench coat, stuffed the envelope he'd been holding onto in a pocket, and then faced his head of security.  
  
"Have the window repaired and make sure that no other part of the house has been compromised. Review the security tapes and catch the son of a bitch who not only got close enough to the house, but got through the gates to begin with. I want him found, do you understand?"  
  
"Yes, Mr. Kaiba. Where are you going, sir?"  
  
"I'm going to take my brother somewhere safe," he said. 'And meet this bastard that passing himself off as my adoptive father,' he added to himself as he walked out of his bedroom.  
  
He quickly walked to Mokuba's room and went to the bed to find his little brother still sleeping. Kaiba smiled at the sight of the boy holding tightly to a stuffed bear he'd gotten him for his last birthday. He was glad that Mokuba hadn't woken up, because he didn't want to worry the boy. Kaiba left the bedside and went to Mokuba's closet, where he packed some of his clothes and his school uniform into a small bag. After picking up Mokuba's school bag, Kaiba went to the bed and picked Mokuba up as well.  
  
"Will you need the driver, sir?"  
  
Kaiba turned to glare at the man. "No. Things get done better when I do them myself," he said, and walked away.  
  
In the garage, he picked up the keys to his favorite car and laid Mokuba gently in the back seat, before getting in the driver's seat. Kaiba was unnerved at what had just happened. It was a little past three in the morning, and he should be asleep. He shouldn't be carting his little brother off to God knows where after reading some cryptic note from a lunatic that was probably a fan or an ex employee of Gozaburo Kaiba. Why after all this time, though? That's what Kaiba couldn't figure out. Gozaburo had been dead for over four years, so why had this guy claiming to be Gozaburo wait this long to do something?  
  
Kaiba shook his head, returning his attention to the road. He'd know soon enough, after all.  
  
He pulled up to his destination in record time and quickly got his brother out of the car. Mokuba was still sleeping, thankfully. Kaiba didn't think he'd have the patience for explanations. He walked up to the door and knocked loudly on it, knowing that he was about to wake up the residents of the house. He just hoped that the younger of the two men came to the door, instead of the older one. The elder didn't like Kaiba very much, and the younger one at least tolerated him. Kaiba was counting on the teenager's kind heart for help with his brother.  
  
After a few more moments of knocking, a light came on upstairs, followed by a light downstairs. Kaiba heard some grumbling before the door was swung open to reveal a pajama clad and very sleepy Yugi Moto.  
  
"Kaiba? What are you doing here? What happened to Mokuba?"  
  
"Shh," Kaiba chastised. "He's asleep and I want to keep it that way. Can I leave him here tonight?"  
  
He'd come to Yugi's not because he'd wanted to. He grudgingly respected the younger teen, but felt no friendliness towards him at all. Yugi was just someone that was there. Mokuba, however, really liked Yugi. Besides, if whoever had thrown the brick through his window was involved with Kaiba Corp. it was unlikely that they'd know to find Mokuba at Yugi's.  
  
"What happened?" Yugi asked, motioning for Kaiba to enter the small living room.  
  
"Something happened at my house, and I wanted to get Mokuba out of there while security was checking it out. If he can just spend the night here tonight, and if you could take him to school tomorrow morning, I'll pick him up at school tomorrow."  
  
Yugi nodded, and Kaiba breathed a sigh of relief. He was always amazed at how generous Yugi was, no matter what the circumstances.  
  
"Sure, you can bring him up to my room," Yugi said.  
  
They were about to go up the stairs when a figure started coming down.  
  
"Yugi, what's going on?"  
  
Kaiba's heart sank. Yugi's grandfather didn't like him at all and Kaiba was afraid that the man would turn them away because of it.  
  
"Something happened at Kaiba's house, so Mokuba is going to spend the night here," Yugi said.  
  
Yugi's grandfather's eyes shifter from Yugi to Kaiba, before going down to Mokuba. He nodded.  
  
"Is this something you're going to take care of?"  
  
Kaiba looked at the elder Moto, who was staring at him.  
  
"Yes, sir. It will be taken care of tomorrow."  
  
"Good. Bring Mokuba up to Yugi's room. I'll get some extra blankets."  
  
Kaiba walked the rest of the way upstairs and into Yugi's room. He'd never been there, so he stood at the door for a moment. Yugi's room was so different from his. While his was dark and spacious, Yugi's was small and light. Books littered most surfaces, as well as toys of various kinds. Kaiba could see Yugi's dueling deck on the desk, next to the Millennium Puzzle.  
  
"Here, lay him on the bed."  
  
Kaiba started to do as Yugi told him, then stopped.  
  
"It's your bed, Yugi. I'll just lay Mokuba on the floor when your grandfather brings the blankets."  
  
Yugi shook his head. "Just lay him down, Kaiba. I have a very comfortable sleeping bag I can sleep on."  
  
"Big brother?"  
  
Kaiba looked down to see that Mokuba was awake. He looked around, his eyes still cloudy with sleep.  
  
"Where are we?"  
  
"We're at Yugi's, Mokuba. Something happened at the house so you're going to be spending the night here, okay?"  
  
Mokuba sat up. "What about you, Seto?"  
  
"I'll be fine; I'm going to go take care of this. Spend the night here, go to school tomorrow and I'll pick you up after school. I brought your cell phone, so if I'm not there, call the driver and have him pick you up, okay?"  
  
Mokuba nodded. He looked at Yugi and smiled at him. "Thanks for letting me stay."  
  
Yugi smiled in return. "Not a problem, Mokuba."  
  
Kaiba turned to Yugi as well. "Yes, thank you, Yugi. I appreciate this." He turned back to Mokuba. "I'll go get your stuff from the car, you go back to sleep."  
  
Mokuba, who was already half asleep, nodded and lay back down. Kaiba nodded and left the room, Yugi following. He ran into Mr. Moto and stopped.  
  
"Thank you for letting my brother stay in your house, Mr. Moto."  
  
Mr. Moto nodded to him once, before entering Yugi's room.  
  
"What happened, Kaiba. What's got you so spooked."  
  
Kaiba stopped in the middle of the living room and turned to glare at the younger teen. The boy was observant; he had to give him that.  
  
"Someone threw a brick through my bedroom window while I was sleeping. That's all. I don't want Mokuba there in case something else happens."  
  
He left the house and got the bags out of the car. When he reached the front door, Yugi took them.  
  
"You don't seem like the kind of guy to get spooked when a brick lands on your floor. What else is going on?"  
  
Kaiba sighed. He didn't want to be rude, especially since Yugi was letting Mokuba spend the night, but he was in a hurry.  
  
"Look, Yugi, I appreciate you helping, but this is none of your concern. You should probably go to bed, since tomorrow is a school day."  
  
Without another word, Kaiba turned and walked back to his car. With one last look at Yugi, he started it and took off.  
  
Absently, he looked down at the address that had been written on the note. He was familiar with the street, but wasn't really sure what was there. The address was for a part of town that he rarely frequented, but he was sure he'd be able to find it with little difficulty. He drove fast, eager to get this over with. He couldn't wait to get his hands on this guy, whoever he was. Kaiba shrugged. He supposed it could be a woman too. What ticked him off was that it was someone who knew enough about him and his history with Gozaburo to use it against him. As far as he knew, Mokuba was the only person still alive who was aware of what Gozaburo had done to him. Well, there were the various doctors that tended to him over the years, but Kaiba doubted they had enough brains to do anything like this.  
  
"It doesn't matter who it is," Kaiba growled as he pulled up to the address.  
  
It was an older, semi run down building in the middle of the industrial district. It was three stories tall, but looked like a warehouse. Kaiba parked his car in front of the building and got out. Stealth was useless, since he was expected. He walked to the front door of the building and found it unlocked. Shrugging, he made his way inside.  
  
The inside of the building was pristine. He found himself inside a maze of stainless steel corridors, which he wouldn't have expected from the building's outer appearance. There was low lighting illuminating the way, and Kaiba saw small arrows directing him to where he had to go. He followed the arrows, thinking that the place looked very much like one of his own research labs. When he stopped at a junction, he looked into one of the alcoves and found Kaiba Corp. equipment on the bench.  
  
"What the hell? This isn't one of my labs?"  
  
Someone had to be stealing equipment from the labs and bringing it here. Who or why, Kaiba had no clue, but he was going to find out. It was probably the same person who'd sent him the note.  
  
The more he walked, the angrier he became. What right did this person have to steal from him, and then delve into his personal hell and use it against him?  
  
A ticking sound caught his attention and Kaiba found himself at the end of the long corridor. Directly ahead, in the middle of the wide room, was a computer console. Behind it was a large, mainframe computer attached to several others through the silver wires that ran between them. The mainframe looked suspiciously like the one he used to develop the virtual reality simulators in his personal lab. He had been to that lab a few days ago and the mainframe was untouched, so this had to be another one.  
  
When he got to the console, he saw another envelope addressed to him. Kaiba picked it up and took out the sheet inside to find more neatly typed text.  
  
~I knew that you'd be too curious for your own good. Go ahead, turn on the computer and you'll get your answer.~  
  
This time, the note was not signed. Kaiba put it down and walked around the mainframe, noting that it was exactly like his. What kind of information was stored here? He supposed he had only one way to find out.  
  
Tentatively, he reached out to the computer console. He ran his fingers over the monitor, knowing that he should probably leave and tell his security people about this. His curiosity got the better of him, however, and he laid his fingers over the keyboard. He typed in the sequence that he knew would turn on the machine, and immediately felt a strong, electrical shock run through his fingers. He tried to pull his hands off the keyboard, but found that small, thin wires had come up from the keyboard and embedded themselves into his hands.  
  
Suddenly, he felt as he usually did when he was entering the virtual reality world, like his consciousness was being separated from his body. He saw color, shapes and people, but couldn't really pinpoint anything specific. After a short while, his head began to hurt. Before long, the pain was all there was. He fought it, fought to get back to reality, but found it useless. Darkness overtook him, and Kaiba welcomed it with open arms.  
  
**~~**  
  
Gozaburo Kaiba jerked awake to find himself sitting in front of his workstation. His hands hurt, and he looked down to find them bleeding from where the wires had been attached. He smiled and reached out to turn on the overhead lighting. He blinked at the sudden bright light, but got up when his eyes had adjusted. He had to go and make sure that his plan had worked.  
  
Immediately, he went to the small bathroom off the main room and looked in the mirror. Bright blue eyes, half hidden under brown hair stared back at him. The face, youthful and unmarked by time, was expressionless. The body was tall and lean, and Gozaburo ran his hands down it appreciatively. Seto had always been a handsome child, but he'd turned into and even more handsome teenager. Gozaburo sneered, examining his new features in the mirror.  
  
It had all been worth it. The horrible circumstances that had led him to develop the mainframe to store his mind in until a suitable body to replace his dying one could be found could not have been avoided, but something good had come of it. He'd watched as Seto had stolen his company right out from under him, knowing that he'd be back to get his revenge.  
  
He left the bathroom and rummaged around his laboratory until he found the old Egyptian book of spells he'd read before depositing his mind into the computer. He had to get rid of Seto's consciousness to have sole use of the body, and he needed the book to do it. The Egyptians had always been obsessed with the afterlife and the soul, so they'd done quite a bit of experimenting on the subject. It was lucky for him that they did, because he was going to have to use some of their spells to get rid of this body's original owner.  
  
Gozaburo emptied out Seto's pockets to see what he had to work with. He found the keys to the car Seto had driven here, plus his wallet. Upon opening the wallet, Gozaburo found a school identification card, a driver's license, and various credit cards. There was also plenty of money, which suited Gozaburo just fine. In another pocket, he found a deck of cards, which he vaguely remembered were for that game Seto used to like so much. He shrugged and put the cards back in the pocket of the trench coat.  
  
When he leaned forward to pick up the wallet and keys, he was hit in the face by something. He picked it up and saw that it was a locket in the shape of a Duel Monsters card. Gozaburo opened it to find a picture of Mokuba as he'd been when he had adopted the two boys. Apparently, Seto had developed a sentimental side. He was about to rip it off and throw it away, when he realized that he was going to have to keep up appearances and pretend to be Seto, at least for a little while. He closed the locket and let it fall back onto his chest. He'd be able to get rid of it soon enough.  
  
**~~**  
  
*pokes head out from behind monitor, not sure if rotten tomatoes are going to come flying*  
  
So, how was it? Good? Bad? Confusing? Absolutely useless? Needs to go into the recycle bin? 


	2. Not What He Seems

Greetings!  
  
I'm very happy that this story got such good reviews. I always get paranoid and nervous when writing something new. It is a tad confusing now. I just hope that as the story goes on, more starts to make sense.  
  
Reviews:  
  
I was going to reply to the reviews, but I can't get to them to read them. They're working for my other stories, though. Funny how that happens. Thank you for reviewing, though! Someone mentioned that they were confused about how Gozaburo could have been alive long enough to dump his mind into the computer. One of my readers once told me that in the anime, Gozaburo had died of a heart attack while in the manga, Seto had pushed him out of a window. I don't follow the manga, because they're only just now translating it into English. So the heart attack thing made more sense to me and fits this story better.  
  
Now on to the chapter!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 2: Not What He Seems  
  
Mokuba Kaiba awoke to find himself in a strange place. He looked around the semi dark room, frowning. He was beginning to panic, when he suddenly remembered that his brother had brought him to Yugi's house in the middle of the night. The panic subsided, to be replaced by worry for his older brother. Where was Seto now? How was he?  
  
The shrill ringing of an alarm startled him, as did the sound of a hand slamming down on the alarm, shutting it off. Mokuba glanced down and in the low lighting of the room saw Yugi sleeping on a sleeping bag beside the bed. The older boy grumbled unintelligently, before burrowing his head in the pillows.  
  
"I'll be up in a little bit," Yugi mumbled.  
  
Mokuba opened his mouth to reply, thinking that Yugi had spoken to him, when Yugi's next words stopped him.  
  
"I swear, Yami, if you don't shut up, I'm going to throw the puzzle out of the window."  
  
Mokuba grinned. He knew about Yami, but had never been around Yugi when they weren't out in public, so he really didn't know how they communicated. Mokuba figured that he couldn't hear or see Yami, but Yugi probably could.  
  
"I take it you're not a morning person," Mokuba stated.  
  
Yugi turned towards the bed quickly, his expression one of surprise. The surprise quickly passed, and Yugi grinned slightly in embarrassment.  
  
"Sorry, Mokuba. I'd forgotten you were here. To answer your question, no I'm not a morning person. Yami knows this and does his best to annoy me when I wake up."  
  
"Yugi, time for school!"  
  
Yugi chuckled. "Grandpa usually has to yell at me a few times before I get up."  
  
Yugi got up, picking up the sleeping bag he'd slept on and folding it neatly. He rummaged around until he was holding some clothes.  
  
"I'm going to shower in my grandfather's room. You can use my bathroom to get ready, if you like. Your brother brought you some clothes and your uniform."  
  
Mokuba nodded, glancing at where Yugi was pointing.  
  
"Thanks for letting me spend the night, Yugi."  
  
"It wasn't a problem. Now we both better get dressed before grandpa comes up here to drag us down for breakfast."  
  
Mokuba watched Yugi walk out of the room, then got off the bed and got his uniform. He headed into the bathroom, his mind not on his current task but on his brother. He'd have to ask Yugi what Seto had said to him last night, because Mokuba really didn't remember anything. He wished he'd been awake to find out what the danger had been, or to offer his help. Not that Seto needed it, but just because he wanted to help.  
  
Thirty minutes later, he was sitting on Yugi's bed, fully dressed. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now. If he'd been at his house, he would have already gone down for breakfast, but he didn't know what the procedure here was and he didn't want to seem rude.  
  
He was interrupted by a knock on the door. Mr. Moto poked his head inside, smiling brightly at Mokuba.  
  
"If you're ready, you can come down to breakfast. Yugi usually takes a while to get ready, but you look like you're ready to eat."  
  
Mokuba nodded, and then followed the elder Moto down to the dining table. The Moto's house was small compared to his, but it seemed cozier and more inviting.  
  
"Wow, that smells wonderful. What is it?" Mokuba asked as he caught a whiff of whatever Mr. Moto had made for breakfast.  
  
Mr. Moto chuckled. "It's scrambled eggs, toast, and raspberry pancakes. Come on, dig in," he said, sitting Mokuba down at one of the chairs and taking the chair opposite him. "So, how is school going, Mokuba? Do you like your classes?"  
  
Mokuba was surprised. He and his brother usually had breakfast together, but they rarely talked. Mr. Moto seemed only too willing to hold a conversation.  
  
"School is okay. I really like my classes, especially math," Mokuba said, taking the offered plate. He tasted the pancakes and practically gasped when they reached his mouth. "These are delicious!"  
  
Mr. Moto smiled. "Thank you, Mokuba."  
  
Yugi came down to breakfast then, throwing his backpack by the door. He sat down and immediately dug in.  
  
"Morning, Grandpa!"  
  
"Good morning, Yugi. Don't forget that you're taking care of the shop this afternoon while I go to the hospital."  
  
Mokuba's eyes widened.  
  
"I remember, Grandpa. I'll be home right after school."  
  
"Is there something wrong, Mr. Moto?" Mokuba asked, staring intently at the elder man.  
  
Mr. Moto chuckled. "No, Mokuba, nothing is wrong. It's just a routine checkup, that's all."  
  
Mokuba turned to Yugi, who was staring at him. Yugi gave him a reassuring smile and Mokuba smiled back.  
  
Twenty minutes later, he and Yugi were on their way to school.  
  
"Your grandfather is a really nice guy, Yugi."  
  
"Yeah, he is, Mokuba."  
  
"Are you sure he's not sick?"  
  
Yugi turned to him, his face slightly more serious than it was before.  
  
"He says that he's okay."  
  
Mokuba immediately picked up on the tone.  
  
"But you don't entirely believe him, do you?"  
  
Yugi sighed. "I don't know."  
  
The two boys continued to walk in silence, until Mokuba spoke up again.  
  
"What did Seto tell you last night? What happened at the house?"  
  
Yugi sighed again, and then turned away from Mokuba. Mokuba watched Yugi's face as it moved with the emotions playing through his mind, until the teen finally turned to him.  
  
"I don't really know. All Kaiba said was that someone had thrown something into his room and he had to go take care of it. He didn't want you anywhere near the house, so he brought you to my house."  
  
Mokuba frowned. "We have a super sensitive security system. No one gets into the house or surrounding grounds without us knowing about it."  
  
Yugi shrugged. "That's probably what Kaiba was worried about."  
  
Mokuba nodded. He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was wrong. He didn't know why, but he suddenly had an urge to see his brother and make sure that he was okay.  
  
"Well, here we are, Mokuba. Kaiba said he'd pick you up after school. If he doesn't show, he said to call a driver to be picked up."  
  
Mokuba nodded again.  
  
"Mokuba."  
  
The soft voice stopped him from walking into the school and he turned to find Yugi looking at him.  
  
"If your brother doesn't come and you don't want to go home, you're welcome to come to my house."  
  
Mokuba grinned.  
  
"Thanks, Yugi!"  
  
**~~**  
  
"Does Mokuba need to be picked up, Mr. Kaiba?"  
  
Gozaburo turned to the man standing next to the car and glared at him. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't seen Mokuba in the house, either last night when he'd finally made it back or this morning.  
  
"No," he said simply and got into the car. "School," he added when the driver had entered the car.  
  
Gozaburo sighed, feeling good. It had been a while since he'd had a body of his own, and he was glad that this one was young and in excellent health. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this alive and vigorous. He looked down at the slender hands and grinned.  
  
He'd gone through Seto's room as soon as he'd gotten back, and was shocked to discover that Seto still went to public school. Gozaburo had given the kid the best education possible, and he knew that Seto had been smarter than anyone his age, so he couldn't understand why he put up with the inconvenience of school.  
  
'Maybe he needed to make friends,' Gozaburo thought, smirking.  
  
Since he had to pretend to be Seto until he could get control of things again, he'd gotten up in the morning, put on Seto's school uniform, and was on his way to high school. He chuckled. He hadn't set foot in school in almost 40 years, so it was going to be interesting to see what it was like these days.  
  
He was now wondering, however, where Mokuba was. Seto had always been very protective of the brat, so Gozaburo doubted that Seto would send him away. If he hadn't been at the house, maybe he was staying somewhere else for the time being. Not that it would matter. If little Mokuba walked back into the Kaiba mansion, Gozaburo would just put him in his place.  
  
"We've arrived Mr. Kaiba. I'll be here to pick you up after school."  
  
Gozaburo nodded his agreement and stepped out of the car. He was caught off guard for a moment at the loud voices that surrounded him. Then he remembered that he was now in the body of a teenager surrounded by other teenagers. He wasn't sure just how Seto acted in school, but Gozaburo doubted he was one to hang around with many people. No, Gozaburo himself had made sure that Seto would live an isolated life, and hoped that even after his 'death', Seto had managed to continue with his teachings.  
  
He reached into Seto's black briefcase and took out a printed copy of his class schedule. It was going to be a little hard to find his way, but Gozaburo wasn't worried. He was walking up the steps to the school when he had to slow down. Two kids, a blonde and a kid with weird hair were walking in front of him going very slow. He was about to pass them, but at the last minute decided not to. Maybe if he followed them, they'd end up at the same place.  
  
His patience was rewarded when he looked up at the number of the classroom the two boys entered and realized that it was the same one he was supposed to go to. Taking a deep breath, Gozaburo walked inside. He didn't know where Seto usually sat, but doubted he'd sit in the front, so he made his way to one of the desks in back. A few of the students who were already there looked up at him, giving him indifferent stares, but Gozaburo just glared at them until they looked away. Once he had sat down, he looked around and noted that the two boys he'd been following were sitting just a few desks away from them. The blonde kid noticed him looking and motioned to the shorter one with the wild hair.  
  
"Speaking of the devil, Yugi. There's Kaiba."  
  
The shorter boy turned and smiled. He said something soft to his friend, before making his way over to Gozaburo.  
  
"Are you okay, Kaiba? Did you get everything settled last night?"  
  
Gozaburo frowned, wondering how much of a fuss his accomplice had made in delivering the message to Seto. Apparently, it had been enough for Seto to have gotten someone else involved.  
  
"What's it to you?" Gozaburo snapped, and watched as a hurt look washed across the younger boy's face.  
  
"Gee, I don't know. You did come by my house to drop off your brother at three this morning. I was just wondering if you'd gotten whatever it was taken care of." The boy paused and glanced back at his blonde friend. "Besides, Mokuba was worried about you this morning when he woke up."  
  
Gozaburo's eyes widened. 'So that's where Mokuba is. He's with this kid, whoever the hell he is.'  
  
"Everything is fine. Where is Mokuba now?"  
  
Yugi sighed. "He's at school. You said you'd be by to pick him up afterwards."  
  
Gozaburo smirked. "Oh, yes, I'll definitely be by to pick him up."  
  
"Okay then," Yugi said and walked away.  
  
Gozaburo watched the kid go, wondering how close he was to Seto. Apparently not close enough, since the boy hadn't noticed anything wrong when they'd talked. Or maybe Seto was normally arrogant and abrasive, just like Gozaburo was being now. The thought brought a rush of pride through Gozaburo. He was satisfied to know that he'd had an impact on Seto's life after all.  
  
**~~**  
  
"Let go of me! Big brother, why are you doing this? Seto, what's wrong?!?"  
  
Seto Kaiba opened his eyes, his heart quickening as his brother's yells penetrated his brain.  
  
"Mokuba? Where are you?"  
  
Kaiba looked around and found himself in a small, empty room. The only thing in the room was a small bed and a window. He didn't recognize the place and immediately became guarded. He got up off the bed in which he'd been lying and walked to the far side of the room, where he could vaguely see a door.  
  
"What's gotten into you, Seto? Let go!"  
  
"Mokuba, where are you?" Seto yelled, his fear and anger at the fact that someone dared to harm his little brother growing.  
  
Why would Mokuba be telling him to stop and let him go, though? He wasn't doing anything to him. Kaiba walked to the door and tried to open it, cursing when it remained shut.  
  
"I'm going to put you where you belong, where you won't get in the way you little brat!"  
  
Kaiba started. That was his voice, but he hadn't spoken. What the hell was going on?  
  
He leaned against the door and tried to think of how he could have gotten into this room. Suddenly, he remembered the Kaiba laboratory he'd been in and the notes from the person who claimed to be Gozaburo. He shuddered at the memory. His eyes widened as he remembered the big mainframe and the feeling of leaving his body. He looked down at his hands, remembering the silver wires burying into the fingers, but saw that his fingers were unmarked.  
  
"Let me go, Seto! Let me out!"  
  
Seeing the window, Kaiba walked to it and peered out, surprised to find himself looking at one of the storerooms in the basement of the mansion. Inside the barely lit room, his brother was lying in a corner of the room, staring frightfully at someone hovering above him. His eyes were wide and tears were streaming down his face.  
  
"Why are you doing this, big brother?"  
  
Kaiba heard a laugh that sent chills down his spine. It took him a few seconds to realize that the laugh was his.  
  
"You never belonged here. You're just an orphan and now I'm going to put you in your place."  
  
The door to the storeroom was slammed shut, and Kaiba could hear his brother's screams from the other side.  
  
"Mokuba! Mokuba!" Kaiba yelled, but it was no use.  
  
He hit the window with his closed fists but the glass didn't break. He continued to peer out of it and saw that he was now moving up the stairs into the main part of the house. After a few minutes, he found himself in his office. He passed a mirror in the hallway and saw himself, wearing his school uniform, grinning maliciously. The gesture looked out of place on his face for some reason and Kaiba wondered if he wasn't the one moving around in his body, who was?  
  
'I see that you're in here, Seto. I was beginning to wonder if you'd gotten trapped in the computer.'  
  
Kaiba jerked at the voice. It was the voice of a man he'd never expected to hear again.  
  
'Gozaburo?'  
  
Gozaburo laughed. 'You're not calling me father anymore, Seto. I'm hurt.'  
  
Kaiba gritted his teeth. 'You stopped deserving that title years ago.'  
  
The laugh returned. 'Ah, always the idealist, I see. Well, how do you like your new accommodations?'  
  
'Where am I? What did you do to Mokuba?'  
  
There was silence, and Kaiba began to wonder if Gozaburo was going to ignore him.  
  
'You are locked in a very small part of your brain. You see, I needed your body and I took it. It's the least you owe me after stealing my company right out from under me. Besides, this was my original plan anyway. You don't think I adopted you out of the goodness of my heart and spent all that time 'training' you for your own good, did you?"  
  
Kaiba slid down the wall and sat on the floor, his knees up to his chest. What the hell was happening? Gozaburo had died of a heart attack hadn't he? Kaiba had found the body himself in his adoptive father's room, he'd seen the man dead.  
  
'My body died, Seto, but my mind didn't,' Gozaburo explained. 'I used the same technology you used to build your virtual reality simulators to build a repository for my mind. My body was dying and the doctors couldn't do anything about it. So I planned ahead then deposited my mind when the time came. I knew that eventually, when you were ready, I'd come back and take your body to continue with my work. I have a lot of things to fix, since you seem to have destroyed everything I'd worked hard to achieve. It doesn't matter though. You're only sixteen. I have the rest of your life to do it.'  
  
Kaiba was shocked. He didn't believe what he was hearing, yet he couldn't deny that there was some truth to it. Gozaburo had secluded himself a great deal after he'd taken over Kaiba Corp. And he had seen the mainframe himself when he'd gone to the lab last night. His own research showed that what Gozaburo was saying was possible, so he couldn't outright deny the plausibility.  
  
'What did you do to Mokuba?" he finally asked.  
  
Gozaburo laughed again.  
  
'Simple, I got him out of the way. He's the only one close enough to you to notice any difference, so he's not going to be around much longer. Don't worry, Seto. When I get rid of you and take this body for myself, I'll make sure to train Mokuba to work with me, just like I trained you.'  
  
Kaiba felt himself go numb as a battery of horrifying memories of his time with Gozaburo filled his mind. He wouldn't let that happen to Mokuba. He'd die first.  
  
'You may think you've won, Gozaburo, but it's not over yet. I will find a way.'  
  
'Such bravery, Seto. However, I doubt that you're in a position to do anything right now. All you can do is wait until I can finally get rid of you.'  
  
The connection was severed and the window went blank. What was he going to do now? How was he going to stop Gozaburo when he didn't even have a body of his own anymore?  
  
**~~**  
  
"This is perfect!" Gozaburo softly exclaimed as he eyed the small, grassy area surrounded by tall trees.  
  
He'd walked to a nearby park and by chance had stumbled upon this clearing. The Egyptian spell book said that an open area was required for the separation ritual he was about to perform, and he'd decided that his house was too well guarded to be useful. No one would find him here and he could finally get rid of Seto's soul.  
  
Seto was a persistent one, Gozaburo had to give the kid that much. Ever since their conversation, Seto hadn't shut up once, continuing to yell at Gozaburo and demanding to be given his body back to the point where Gozaburo couldn't take it anymore. He hadn't originally planned to do the incantation this soon after taking Seto's body, mainly because he wasn't quite sure if the spell would work. Granted, it was the only option he had and would have done it eventually, he just would have liked to have had more time to research and maybe talk to a couple of his trusted people, people who had been in contact with him over the past few years, before performing the spell. That, however, wasn't an option anymore.  
  
'You coward!' Seto yelled. 'You had your chance at life and ruined it, now give me back mine!'  
  
Gozaburo sighed. He was really getting tired of the shouting in his head. He had to admit that he was afraid, because every hour that passed, Seto's soul seemed to get stronger. He had to get rid of it now before it became dominant again.  
  
He walked to the middle of the clearing and kneeled, placing the open book of Egyptian incantations in front of him. He gathered his concentration and slowly began to chant the ancient language he'd learned while imprisoned in the computer, his words gaining confidence and momentum as he recited. Slowly, he felt the power build up inside and around him, which was an indication that the spell was working. He reached the end of the spell and felt a slight separation. He visualized that small part of his brain that was still Seto and put it in his hand. As he recited the last word of the spell, he moved his hand, throwing Seto's soul out of the body.  
  
"Kaiba?"  
  
Concentration destroyed, Gozaburo turned towards the sound of the voice to find the small boy with the wild hair standing a few feet behind him, staring at him with a puzzled expression on his face. He immediately stood up and was about to advance towards the boy when the boy's eyes suddenly widened and he dropped to the ground. Startled, Gozaburo immediately walked towards where the boy lay and kneeled beside him. He reached out a hand to the boy's neck and found a strong pulse.  
  
"What the hell? Maybe the kid is anemic or something."  
  
Gozaburo looked around, the last thing he needed was for someone to see him and think that he'd done something to this kid. He had to get the kid out of the way. He couldn't leave him here, though, because it would look suspicious. Besides, his fingerprints were already on the kid's body if anyone decided to investigate. No, he had to take the kid home. But where was home?  
  
Quickly, he searched the kid's back pack and finally the pockets of his coat and pants until he found his wallet. Opening it, he immediately found an identification card.  
  
"Yugi Moto, huh? Well, Yugi, looks like I'm going to have to take you home."  
  
Gozaburo picked the boy up, surprised at how little he weighed. He'd parked his car on the deserted end of the park so hopefully no one would see him carrying the boy. His luck didn't hold out, however, as he was stopped by a woman when he was almost to the car.  
  
"Dear lord, what happened."  
  
Gozaburo, startled, didn't reply right away.  
  
"My. . . brother," he supplied, remembering that he was supposed to be sixteen years old, "fell asleep on one of the benches. He's okay, I'm just taking him home." He smiled widely, hoping that the woman believed his story.  
  
The woman smiled back kindly. "You take care of him, dear," she said and continued on her way.  
  
Gozaburo sighed, and finally made it to his car. He opened the passenger door of the car, grateful that he'd decided to drive himself. Unfortunately for him, he was driving Seto's sports car, which only seated two people. He sat the unconscious Yugi in the passenger seat and buckled his seat belt, positioning his head so that it was resting against the window. At the last minute, Gozaburo took off his trench coat, bunched it up and used it to both cushion and cover the boy's hair. If he'd remembered Yugi by the way his hair looked, he was sure that others would too, and he didn't want to take the chance of one of the boy's friends seeing him in the car.  
  
He stopped for a moment, realizing that Seto was no longer shouting in the back of his mind. He smiled. The spell had worked! He'd been able to get rid of Seto for good and could now rebuild Kaiba Corp. into what he'd originally envisioned. He grinned, then returned to the moment and gazed at the unconscious kid on his passenger seat.  
  
Once he was satisfied that the kid was sufficiently camouflaged, Gozaburo took the identification card out of Yugi's wallet and read the address listed on it. It wasn't far from where they were, and he quickly started the car's engine. He drove as fast as he dared to the address, seeing that it was the address to a game shop. It was a two story building, so Gozaburo assumed that the boy lived upstairs.  
  
"How am I supposed to know if anyone's home?"  
  
Shrugging, he got out of the car and went to the door of the house part of the shop. It was sufficiently late so that the game shop would be closed, so he didn't have to worry about that. He was going to knock and see if anyone opened the door, but stopped when he saw a note taped to the door. He picked it up and quickly read it.  
  
~Yugi,  
  
I've gone to the grocery store. I'll be back in time for dinner.  
  
Love,  
  
Grandpa. ~  
  
Gozaburo sighed. There was no one home.  
  
He raced back to the car and rummaged through Yugi's bag until he found the keys in an inner pocket. He picked up the boy and quickly took him into the house. For a moment, Gozaburo considered just dropping him off on the sofa, and then decided against it. He didn't want the boy's grandfather to think anything was wrong with his grandson. Instead, Gozaburo carried the kid up the stairs and finally found a room that looked like it belonged to him. He set Yugi on the bed and left him there. The boy was breathing and his heart was beating, so whatever was wrong was not Gozaburo's problem. The kid's grandfather could worry about it when he got home.  
  
Without a backwards glance, Gozaburo left he modest house and drove to his mansion.  
  
**~~**  
  
Seto Kaiba was not feeling well.  
  
He woke to darkness and a splitting headache.  
  
'I must have been working late again.'  
  
He tried to recall what he'd been doing the night before, but he couldn't remember. He had several important projects going on so he'd probably stayed late at the office working on one. Mokuba had probably gotten worried, gone over to his office, saw him asleep and brought him home. Kaiba was ashamed to say that his little brother had to do that more often lately.  
  
Shaking his head, Kaiba sat up on the bed. He wondered why his alarm hadn't gone off. The clock on the nightstand read 6:00 am, which was his normal wake up time. Shrugging, he put his feet on the floor and got up. He stretched, not bothering to turn the light on. He knew his way around his room well, so no light was necessary.  
  
When he reached the bathroom, he did turn on the light. He stopped, however, when instead of marble beneath his feet, he saw white tile. His feet looked smaller too, for some reason. Puzzled, he shrugged and looked into the mirror, wanting to see just how bloodshot his eyes were.  
  
As soon as he saw himself in the mirror, he jerked back so far and so fast that his back collided with the wall behind him. Instead of staring into bloodshot blue eyes, he found himself staring into wide, violet ones. His gaze traveled further up to find that his normal head of light brown hair was now a mane of black, maroon and gold.  
  
Seto Kaiba wasn't looking at himself in the mirror, he was looking at Yugi Moto.  
  
**~~**  
  
Surprised anyone? Next up: People start to get suspicious. 


	3. Where am I?

Greetings!  
  
Here is another chapter. Hopefully, I answered some of the questions that have popped up in reviews. If I haven't, please feel free to ask!  
  
Reviews:  
  
Labannya (from last chapter): Actually no, I didn't know all of that about Priest Seto. Well, I knew he was the priest, but nothing about his father. How could that work? I mean, why didn't he know who his father was? And if he was such a friend to the pharaoh, why'd he turn all evilish? It does suck that in two lifetimes he gets stuck with sucky fathers.  
  
Dee-whY-Cee-aRe: I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I hope this chapters answers some questions for ya!  
  
Speed: Yami was just teasing Yugi about being a grouch in the morning. Since Yugi was already grouchy, he didn't take the comments well ^_^  
  
Kopy-Kat14: Glad you like the story! After seeing the Noa arc, I felt lots more sympathy for Seto (hence why I'm writing this fic). He may be a jerk, but he had plenty of reasons for becoming that way. Wasn't he a cute kid, though?  
  
DarkMagicianGirl: Don't worry, you didn't confuse me! This chapter should answer some questions for you. I found the image of Yami thinking that Seto was Yugi hilarious! Can't you just see Yami calling Seto aibou?? ^_^  
  
Crystal Hikari: Thanks! I'm very glad to hear you're enjoying the story.  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Gozabaka? Now that's funny! I've been having a blast with the body switching. Evil ideas are still growing in my head.  
  
Mezu: Thank you very much!  
  
Adrienne-Lillian: Yup, you got it! This chapter should answer the question of where Yugi and Yami are.  
  
Mutou Yasu: Hey there, it's nice to hear from you again! Spoliers are awesome. I can keep up with the anime pretty well from Janime's site (awesome, awesome site!) and I've seen up to episode 120. The manga, however, is a different story. The whole ancient Egypt thing really threw me for a loop, since the translations I've seen are not very good. I'd appreciate if you could fill me in on that. Having said all of that, I'm glad you're enjoying this story!  
  
Ginger Ninja: I almost titled the chapter Musical Bodies (instead of Musical Chairs) for all the body swapping that was going on. Thanks!  
  
Lavender Wonder: You'll find out where Yugi is in this chapter. And yes, things are definitely messed up. Hopefully they'll make sense eventually.  
  
Thanks a bunch for all the wonderfully encouraging comments! You're the best! Now on to the fic. Enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 3: Where am I?  
  
Seto Kaiba rubbed his eyes, willing the horrible vision of Yugi Moto to disappear from his mirror. When he was satisfied that enough time had passed, he slowly cracked one eye open, only to fully open both of them when Yugi still stared at him from the mirror.  
  
Slowly, as if moving through water, Kaiba reached up and touched his cheek, frowning when the image in the mirror did exactly the same thing. He finally looked down at himself to see that he was clothed in light blue cotton pajamas and had the Millennium Puzzle hanging around his neck.  
  
"This is not happening."  
  
Turning his attention to the bathroom, Kaiba noticed that it was much smaller than the one in his room and much planer. It was decorated in white, with navy blue towels and a navy blue shower curtain. While his bathroom at home was spacious and luxurious, this one was small and very cramped. Releasing a pent up breath, Kaiba left the bathroom and looked for the light switch in the room. When he found it and turned the light on, he found himself in Yugi's room, which he'd only seen for the first time the night before.  
  
"Yugi? Are you awake already?"  
  
The voice filtered through the door to the hallway and Kaiba cringed. Before he could help it, the door opened and in walked Yugi's grandfather. The elder man immediately came up to him and put a hand on his forehead and another on his cheek. Kaiba was slightly amused to notice that while before he'd towered over the man, he was now up to his height.  
  
"You're not feverish," Mr. Moto said, giving his cheek one last pat before taking a step back. "I found you asleep in your bed, fully dressed, when I got home from the grocery store last night. I tried to wake you for dinner but you wouldn't wake up. I changed you into your pajamas and let you sleep it off, but I was beginning to get worried."  
  
Kaiba didn't say anything. What could he say? Mr. Moto was treating him as if he were his grandson, and considering that the body he now had looked like Yugi's, Mr. Moto had nothing to be suspicious about.  
  
"Yugi? What's wrong?"  
  
Kaiba raised his eyes, realizing that he was going to have to say something.  
  
"Nothing is wrong," he finally said, wincing when it was Yugi's voice he heard. "I'm just tired."  
  
Mr. Moto laughed. "You are awake kind of early for you, Yugi. You can still sleep for another hour if you'd like."  
  
Kaiba nodded. "Yes, I think I'll do that."  
  
"Okay. Come down to breakfast when you're ready," Mr. Moto said and left the room.  
  
Kaiba stood where he was, staring at the closed door for a while. What was going on? The last thing he remembered was. . . what was the last thing he remembered? He'd brought Mokuba to Yugi's house, that he could still clearly see. What had happened afterwards? Kaiba shook his head. . . he had no idea.  
  
He walked to Yugi's bed and sat on the edge of it, seeing the room from a different perspective. Yugi's dueling deck, which was on the desk beside the bed, caught Kaiba's attention. He picked it up and rifled through the cards, not surprised at what he saw. After all, he and Yugi had dueled or watched each other duel enough times to know each other's decks pretty well.  
  
He shook his head and put it pack on the desk. When he lowered his arm, it hit the golden, upside down pyramid around his neck, and Kaiba picked it up experimentally. He'd never really seen it up close and noticed that it was very intricately carved. The pyramid glowed slightly and felt warm to the touch, which made Kaiba wonder if it suddenly knew that Yugi was no longer present.  
  
With a sudden realization, Kaiba stood up and looked around the room. If he was in Yugi's body, in his room, where was Yugi? Come to think of it, where was Yami? Wasn't Yami the one that usually lived in the puzzle?  
  
"Yugi? Yami?" Kaiba called out, looking at the puzzle around his neck. Nothing happened.  
  
"Are you around?"  
  
Silence was the only thing that greeted him. Kaiba stared closely at the pyramid, willing it to tell him where Yugi and Yami were, but the pyramid did nothing. Disgusted, Kaiba let go of it, groaning slightly when it hit his chest. He rubbed his chest and it suddenly hit him that this body was completely alien to him. Where he was tall, Yugi was short. Where he was lean and well built, Yugi was thin and weak. It was just beyond comprehension that he could be in someone else's body. This was normally Yugi's thing to deal with, not his.  
  
Frustrated, Kaiba flopped down onto the comfortable bed. What was he supposed to do? Who could he possibly go to for help? Yugi's grandfather wouldn't believe him and he wasn't about to go to Yugi's friends. His thoughts were interrupted when Mr. Moto knocked on the door.  
  
"Yugi, you're going to be late for school if you don't come down for breakfast."  
  
Startled, Kaiba looked at the clock beside the bed and saw that it was almost seven in the morning. He didn't want to go to school, but he supposed that he couldn't stay, not without having to explain himself to Mr. Moto.  
  
Sighing, he got up and made his way to the closet. He swung the door open and walked inside, figuring that Yugi would keep his uniform somewhere easy to get to. He was rewarded when he saw the blue jacket and pants. Now all he had to do was find appropriate clothes to go underneath. He rummaged through Yugi's clothing, grumbling when all he found were brightly colored shirts. There was nothing in the closet that he wanted to wear, everything seemed too childish and unsophisticated for him.  
  
"Yugi!"  
  
Mr. Moto was getting impatient. Finally deciding on a simple, black button down shirt, Kaiba pulled it out and made his way to the bathroom. He dressed and got ready, leaving the hair alone. He didn't know what to do with it except run a comb through it, so that's all he did. He looked around for Yugi's backpack and upon not finding it, gave up and went downstairs.  
  
"Breakfast is ready, Yugi. You better eat fast, so you can still catch your bus."  
  
Kaiba raised his eyebrows at that. Bus? He wasn't about to take the bus. Then he remembered that he wasn't at home and had no other way to get to school. He sighed again and sat down beside Mr. Moto, who proceeded to fill his plate.  
  
Kaiba stared at the freshly made breakfast, his stomach growling in hunger at the delicious smell. He usually ate his breakfast in the limo on the way to school, so he hadn't had a hot breakfast in a long time, certainly not one cooked for him by a family member. Mr. Moto ate his food enthusiastically and looked up when Kaiba hadn't touched his.  
  
"Is there something wrong with breakfast?" Mr. Moto asked, concern in his violet eyes. "Yugi, are you sure you're okay? Do you need me to take you to a doctor?"  
  
Kaiba all of a sudden, and uncharacteristically, felt guilty for making the elder man feel bad. He picked up his fork and began eating, a smile coming naturally at the wonderful taste.  
  
"Breakfast is great, Mr. . . ah, grandfather," Kaiba covered. Mr. Moto looked suspiciously at him, but then went back to his food.  
  
"I'm going to be gone this afternoon as well, Yugi. Can you watch the shop for me until I get back?"  
  
Kaiba nodded. "Sure," was all he said.  
  
"Thank you. Now you better scram before you miss the bus. Your backpack is by the door."  
  
Kaiba got up from the table and was going to walk to the front door when Mr. Moto's hand on his arm stopped him.  
  
"You're everything to me, Yugi, you know that right? I love you with all of my heart. If there's something wrong, I want you to tell me."  
  
Kaiba was suddenly speechless in the face of such love. He hadn't had that directed at him since his parents had died, and it stung when he realized that it wasn't directed at him right now either, just at the boy whose body he occupied.  
  
Without warning, Mr. Moto leaned forward and placed a loving kiss on Kaiba's forehead.  
  
"Take care of yourself, my boy. Be home right after school."  
  
Kaiba nodded again, and went to retrieve the bag and the shoes that were by the front door. He stepped out into the morning sun and was surprised to run into none other than Joey Wheeler.  
  
"What are you doing here m." Kaiba shut his mouth, immediately cutting off the insult that was about to leave his mouth. He'd definitely draw too much attention to himself if he called Joey a mutt.  
  
Joey turned to him, his eyes narrowed.  
  
"What is with you this morning, Yug? I meet you here every day, except when I get here early enough to have breakfast with you and gramps."  
  
"Nothing, just tired. Bad night," was all he said.  
  
He set a quick pace, intent on walking to school instead of taking the bus. He growled in frustration when he didn't seem to get as far as he usually did and then realized that he no longer had his long legs to propel him. With a sigh, he slowed down enough to calm his quickly beating heart. He was not going to get used to this at all.  
  
Tea and Bakura had joined them, and Kaiba was content to let them talk. Every once in a while, they'd ask him something but he'd just ignore them. It wasn't like he'd be able to give them an answer anyway. After a while, they stopped talking to him altogether.  
  
This was going to be a long day.  
  
****  
  
"Are you sure you can do this?"  
  
There was a laugh, soft and self assured.  
  
"Of course I can. I'm the high priest, remember?"  
  
He crossed his arms over his chest. "As high priest, you should show more respect."  
  
The man bowed, but he could tell that it was forced, mocking even.  
  
"Of course, my pharaoh, you deserve my respect. Now, do you want me to save that village or are you going to stand there and lecture me on how to bow properly?"  
  
He cursed under his breath. "Do your work."  
  
"Yes, my pharaoh. It will be my pleasure."  
  
****  
  
The sound of his body hitting the floor, plus the sensation that followed, brought Yami out of his memory. Even though he hadn't been able to see the face of the high priest, the voice was all too familiar to him. He shook his head, ridding his mind of the memory that he could not decipher. Instead, he focused on his surroundings, which seemed darker than usual. The entire soul room felt different and shifted somehow. The once familiar shadows seemed mocking and sinister to him. The air in the room felt thicker and resisting.  
  
Yami got up and walked to the door, intent on speaking to Yugi about the changes, when he was halted by the closed door. Sighing, Yami concentrated and willed the door open, surprised when all he saw was a blank wall. There was no door where there should be one. He was trapped in his soul room.  
  
Lighting fast, the reasons for the sealing of his soul room crossed through his mind.  
  
The puzzle being shattered was the first thing that popped up. It had happened once before, but it hadn't felt quite like this. At that time, he'd been able to feel Yugi and communicate with him. Concentrating once more, Yami tried to reach out to his partner, only to have his probing mind hit a solid barrier.  
  
Yugi could be hurt or dead. That reason he was unwilling to contemplate. It would certainly explain why he was unable to reach Yugi, but if his aibou had been hurt, he'd have felt something. The link they shared would have been active and then slowly decayed. It wouldn't have just gone silent.  
  
Magic was another other reason. He knew that the Millennium Items had sprung from very powerful magic and said magic could be made to control the items. Yami, however, didn't know anyone in Yugi's world that was powerful enough to control the items in such a way as to seal a spirit inside.  
  
Frustrated, Yami hit his fist against the wall where the soul room door used to be. He had to get out and find Yugi.  
  
**~~**  
  
Yugi's eyes opened slowly and he stretched at his leisure, relishing the feeling of complete rest. It had been a while since he'd been able to sleep through the night due to Yami's dreams, and he hadn't realized just how much it had taken its toll on him. He turned and buried his face in his pillow, intent on going back to sleep, only to quickly sit up in bed when he realized he wasn't in his room.  
  
Looking around, Yugi frowned when he found himself in his soul room.  
  
"Why am I here?"  
  
He thought back to the last thing he remembered, which was seeing Kaiba at the park. Yugi hadn't really been looking for Kaiba, he'd just been out for a walk, trying to decide whether or not to head to Kaiba's mansion to see if everything was okay. He'd been pleasantly surprised to see the older teenager and had meant to talk to him, but something had happened as soon as Kaiba realized he was there.  
  
"What was he doing?" Yugi asked himself, remembering the feeling of being hit by something, then going numb and weak. He must have passed out, but that alone didn't account for him being in his soul room, unless Yami had sensed danger and taken over.  
  
**Yami, what's going on? Why did you take over?**  
  
Yugi sat on the bed and waited for an answer, but none came.  
  
**Yami?**  
  
Nothing.  
  
Concentrating, Yugi reached out to their link, and then gasped in shock when he didn't find it there. He tried again, but all he came up against was silence. It wasn't a block or an intrusion, Yami just wasn't there.  
  
Panicked, Yugi ran to the door and tried to open it, groaning in frustration when the door wouldn't budge. He'd never been locked in the soul room. Until now, he hadn't realized that he could be locked inside. If he was here, though, Yami had to be in control of the body. That's the way it worked. Why would Yami lock him inside his soul room?  
  
Yugi banged on the door, his fists turning red from the effort. When that didn't do anything, he slid down the door to the floor, where he sat with his knees drawn up to his chest.  
  
"I can't feel Yami, and yet I'm locked in my soul room, which means that Yami has to be in control of my body," Yugi said softly, thinking out loud. "Why would he do that? Could something have happened to the puzzle? No, if that had been the case, I'd be the one in control, not Yami. He'd be the one locked in his soul room like he was before I put the puzzle together."  
  
Yugi got up from the floor and paced around the room.  
  
"I have to get out of here and find out what's going on," Yugi said, and went about looking for something to help him unlock the door.  
  
**~~**  
  
"Watch it, you jerk!"  
  
Kaiba stepped aside, glaring at the car that had just nearly run him over. With a sinking feeling he realized that he was staring at his own car.  
  
"Some people have no manners."  
  
Kaiba turned to see Tea Gardner also staring at the car, before turning her attention to him, smiling.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Yeah, just fine. Son of a bitch nearly ran me over though."  
  
He turned and began to walk towards the school, when he suddenly stopped. In front of him, getting out of his car was. . . him. Well, it was his body, at least. He stared as the guy slammed the door shut, locked the car and made his way into the school, glaring at anyone that got in his way.  
  
Suddenly, the events of the last few days returned to his mind, sending him reeling. He felt dizzy and would have tumbled to the ground if Joey hadn't caught him.  
  
"Whoa, Yug, what's wrong?"  
  
Gozaburo was in his body. The man had Mokuba locked up somewhere in the mansion. Gozaburo had been reading an Egyptian spell in the park yesterday, while Kaiba tried his best to distract him, when Yugi had shown up. His mind had been separated from his body, but it had ended up in Yugi's body. Did that mean that Yugi was gone?  
  
Kaiba groaned and clutched his head. He had to get to the mansion to get Mokuba out. He had to stop Gozaburo from doing whatever it was he wanted to do. He had to find Yugi. His vision began to black out and he suddenly felt himself being lifted.  
  
"That's it; I'm taking you to the nurse."  
  
Kaiba's eyes snapped open and he turned to find himself face to face with Joey.  
  
"Put me down!"  
  
He suddenly went limp, and then threw his body weight to one side, catching Joey off guard. The tall teen lost his grip, which allowed Kaiba to hop off Joey's arms. Joey stared at him as if he were looking at a stranger.  
  
"I'm fine, I don't need the nurse. But I need to. . ."  
  
What did he need to do? Should he go to his house now and get Mokuba out while Gozaburo was at school, or should he stick around and try to find out more about what Gozaburo was planning?  
  
"Yugi, what's gotten into you today?"  
  
Joey and Tea were both looking at him strangely, as was Tristan, who had just joined them.  
  
"Where did you learn to do that thing you just did?" Tristan asked.  
  
Kaiba looked at each of Yugi's friends, trying to calm down his racing heart. His first instinct was to tell them to go to hell, but Yugi would never do that. Kaiba didn't hate Yugi enough to alienate his friends from him, so he had to be a bit more civil to the losers standing in front of him. If only because Yugi being in the park yesterday was the only reason Kaiba wasn't dead.  
  
"I. . . Yami's been teaching me self defense," he finally said, the explanation sounding stupid even to his own ears. "We're going to be late if we don't get going," he said, and ran towards the school, leaving the rest of the group behind.  
  
**~~**  
  
"What's with him or am I the only one that thinks Yug's acting strange?"  
  
Joey looked back at Tristan and Tea, who were both staring after their friend.  
  
"I don't know, man, he seems rather uptight today."  
  
"Yeah, he wasn't talking to us very much on the way here, and did you notice how he was glaring at Kaiba? What do you think went on between them?"  
  
Joey shrugged. He knew that Yugi had been worried about the Kaibas, especially after telling him about Kaiba's late night visit to his house the other night.  
  
"Maybe Kaiba got on his case when Yugi went to talk to him. You know how he gets."  
  
Tea shook her head and began to walk towards the school. Joey and the rest followed.  
  
"His demeanor seems different today, though," Ryou mentioned. "He is a bit more aggressive."  
  
Joey shrugged. "Maybe Yami's been coaching him. Yugi did mention that."  
  
"But that's not like Yami either," Tristan said. "Yami's more the quiet, take action when needed type, not the all out aggressive type like Yugi was being this morning. Hell, if I had to compare Yugi to someone, I'd say he was acting like Seto Kaiba."  
  
Joey chuckled. "Yeah, did you hear Yugi curse? I don't think I've ever heard those words leave his mouth before."  
  
Come to think of it, that was strange.  
  
"I'm going to keep my eye on him."  
  
**~~**  
  
Lunch was always the worst time of the school day for Kaiba. He hated to be in the cafeteria, where kids congregated with their friends and talked about their insignificant lives. He also hated being outside, where another set of kids did the same things, while playing mindless games. Kaiba had no time for things like this and he usually went to an empty classroom and worked. He couldn't do that today, since he didn't have his laptop. Besides, he had more important things to worry about, like his brother.  
  
He'd been watching Gozaburo closely all day, trying to figure out what the bastard was up to. He'd been caught glaring a few times, but Gozaburo just glared back and returned to whatever he was doing. In Yugi's body, Kaiba probably wasn't considered much of a threat. He had to use that to his advantage somehow. He had to get to either Kaiba Corp. or to the mansion to keep closer tabs on Gozaburo.  
  
Kaiba left the courtyard and headed to a more secluded part of the school, one that wasn't populated by kids. He sighed, enjoying the silence, until a hand clamped over his upper arm. He was roughly turned around and found himself face to face with Gozaburo Kaiba.  
  
"You're in there, aren't you Seto?"  
  
Kaiba's mouth went dry. The height advantage wasn't in his favor, and Kaiba found himself staring up at his own face.  
  
"Don't bother denying it, I could feel your hatred and see it in those violet eyes every time you looked at me. You've been doing that a lot through out the day, haven't you? Besides, I talked to the poor kid whose body you're now in and he was as shy and unassuming as they come, not aggressive and outright conceited like you. You should have done a better job pretending, Seto."  
  
Kaiba used a karate technique he'd learned when he was twelve to get out of Gozaburo's grip. He took a few steps back, only to come to a halt when his back hit a tree.  
  
"You're not going to get away with this, I already told you. You lived your life and died when you were supposed to!" Kaiba yelled, uncharacteristically losing control of his emotions.  
  
Gozaburo stalked towards him and then lashed out, hitting Kaiba in the face.  
  
"You killed me, you ungrateful little brat," he growled, pushing Kaiba into the tree he was standing in front of.  
  
Kaiba closed his eyes to clear his vision of the stars that were suddenly dancing in front of his eyes. Damn, he had quite a punch. He knew that Yugi's body was no match for his in hand to hand combat. The height disadvantage was one thing, but Yugi was also weaker and probably not as well trained as Kaiba was. Yugi was small, however, which would be an advantage if used properly. Lucky for him, Kaiba still remembered all the training Gozaburo himself had instilled in him.  
  
Using Gozaburo's arms for leverage, Kaiba jumped up slightly and put his legs between them. He used the tree behind him as extra support and pushed, groaning at the effort it took. Gozaburo went flying backwards, while Kaiba dropped to the ground on his feet. He ducked Gozaburo's lunge, but was caught by the ankle as he tried to get away.  
  
"Oh, no you don't!" Gozaburo said, pulling him backwards, which caused him to lose his balance and smash his head against the ground. He blacked out for a moment as he felt blood trickle into his eyes.  
  
When he came to, he was on the ground on his back. Gozaburo was pinning him down so he was immobile. Kaiba tried to push him off, but the body he was now in was too weak. He made a mental note to himself to drag Yugi to his home gym to get him better trained when this was all over.  
  
"Dead little boys tell no tales," the man growled into Kaiba's ear. "You're proving to be incredibly hard to kill, Seto. And now you've drug an innocent bystander into all of this. I'm going to get rid of you right now, even if it means killing the poor kid whose body you're now in."  
  
Gozaburo's hands tightened around his throat. Kaiba squirmed, moving his legs and bucking his hips in an effort to throw Gozaburo off of him, but it didn't work. His hands wrapped around the ones around his neck and tried to pull them off, but Gozaburo was much stronger. Kaiba gazed into his own eyes, which were full of fury, and he absently wondered if he really looked that sinister to everyone else.  
  
His lungs constricted painfully and he was about to pass out, when something knocked Gozaburo off of him. He greedily gulped in air, sending his body into coughing fits. When he finally regained control of the cough, he looked over to find Joey on top of Gozaburo. Gozaburo was caught so off guard that he couldn't block the blows Joey was administering.  
  
"You son of a bitch! You mess with my friend, you mess with me!"  
  
After a few moments, Gozaburo finally came back to his senses. He threw Joey off of him, and Kaiba was surprised when Joey immediately got to his feet. Gozaburo attacked, but Joey managed to avoid it and even landed a kick to Gozaburo's stomach, sending him sprawling to the ground.  
  
'The puppy can fight. I'll have to give him credit for that,' Kaiba thought.  
  
He looked around and sighed when he realized they'd drawn a crowd. Tristan immediately came running up to them and went to help Joey. Gozaburo, seeing that he was in the spotlight and outnumbered, cut his losses. He glared at Kaiba.  
  
"This isn't over," he said, and turned on his heel and walked off.  
  
Joey and Tristan watched him go, before they turned to him. Kaiba sank to the ground and rubbed his sore throat. He didn't think he could speak even if he wanted to. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, he felt every ache and pain. He brought his knees up to his chest, attempting to quell the nausea that raged in his stomach.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
Kaiba looked up at Joey, who'd kneeled beside him, noting that he was sporting a nice bruise on his left cheekbone. Tristan had come with Joey and was kneeling on the other side.  
  
Kaiba nodded. He looked at the crowd, and Tristan followed his gaze.  
  
"The party's over, guys. Go back to your lunch."  
  
His tone was authoritative enough that the crowd listened to him. Kaiba sighed in relief, still trying to regulate his breaths. He felt weak, which was unusual. He'd taken worse beatings than this and had learned to control the pain pretty well. Then he realized that it wasn't his body he was trying to control, which made all the difference.  
  
"What was that about? I know that Kaiba hates you, but he's never resorted to violence before. Now you're going to sit there and tell us what's going on. What happened between the two of you yesterday?"  
  
Kaiba again looked at the determination in Joey's eyes and knew that he wasn't going to get out of this one. He had to hand it to the mutt: he was definitely loyal.  
  
Kaiba opened his mouth to try and come up with some sort of excuse, when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head. Something in his head seemed to click, and he felt the other presence inside his mind before he heard the angry voice in his head.  
  
"Kaiba, what the hell are you doing in my body?"  
  
**~~**  
  
So, did this answer some of your questions? If not, feel free to ask. I'll answer if it doesn't give away the plot.  
  
Next up: A lot of explaining. . . There's another fight. . . plans are made to rescue Mokuba. . . Gozaburo starts to plot. 


	4. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Greetings!  
  
Wow. . . I'm so surprised at the response to this story. I don't think I've ever been so excited about something I'm in the process of writing, and I'm very happy that you all seem to be as happy with this as I am. Thank you so much!  
  
Reviews:  
  
Dee (Sorry to shorten your name!): You're right; Seto has a lot of explaining, not to mention convincing, to do. I don't think his normal attitude will work with the people he has to deal with now.   
  
Mezu: Thank you very much!  
  
DarkMagicianGirl: Well, you know Joey, he's always confused! Thanks!  
  
Bastet Starwind: Thanks for the compliment! Writing long stories has always been my problem (um, difficulty?). . . I just can't write short ones. Well, a short story to me is about 50 pages :o) I'm just glad there are people that like reading the long stories.   
  
Lavender Wonder: Fight scenes are awesome! I don't get to write them very often, so I'm going to make up for it in this story. About Yugi and Yami: You'll get more clarification in this chapter.  
  
Speed: Kaiba couldn't contact Yugi or Yami because they were both locked in their soul rooms. I don't really know (or know if it's ever been explained in the anime or manga) how the puzzle works, but I assume that if the soul room is locked, the soul can't have control of the body. So that's why Kaiba was on his own, since his room was the only one open.   
  
Jadesaber: Thank you very much! I hope to keep this story moving fast.  
  
Moonlight Shadow: The memories are a tricky thing to do, especially Yami's. The only thing I know about him being pharaoh is what I've read from manga summaries, which isn't much. I just hope not to get AUish as we go along. Seto's are easier, until they start dealing with his high priest past. I need to do more reading up on that. Tristan is a good fighter. . . Joey probably learned some of that from his time hanging with him.   
  
YoukoVegito: Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Adrienne: Uh, oh. . . Adrienne and a chainsaw can't be a good thing. I feel for the plushies. I hope they all made it in one piece! *AmunRa's plushies wince in sympathy to Adrienne's plushies plight*  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Joey's great when he's kicking butt! I'm glad you liked the scene with grandpa Moto. I've always liked him. . . he's very sweet. I wanted Kaiba to get a taste of that too. Yugi, Yami, and Kaiba are definitely going to have an interesting time sharing the body. I can't wait to write it!  
  
TZ: Oops! That must have been about the time ff.net went down for updates. Did you manage to get the rest of the chapters? Glad you like the fic!  
  
Millenia Star: A different kind of torture is how I'm looking at it. But it's going to be fun, I hope!  
  
Lady of the Thread: Thanks! You're right; the dreams will lead to something eventually. I'll just take a bit of time to work it out.   
  
Crystal Hikari: Strawberry milkshakes are very good, though they don't make me hyper. Chocolate does it for me. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
SerafinaMoon: Weird, cool, and freaky. . . I like. It's always good to have a mix of things, right? Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad you're enjoying the story as much as my other ones.  
  
Treska SilverFlame: I'm very glad you're enjoying the story. Kaiba's father was a real bastard, which is always a good one to have as a villain in the story. Besides, it gives me a chance to explore Kaiba's background.   
  
Mutou Yasu: Janime's site is wonderful. I need to put up a link to it in my bio. I love her episode summaries and the captures she does. Makes me wish I lived in Japan to see the new episodes. Thank you for your offer of help. I'm definitely going to take you up on it. I'll e-mail you my questions, though!  
  
Kool-Aid Addict: Sheer delight is a good thing, right? Glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Ginger Ninja: The plot is still being worked on in my head, but hopefully it'll go somewhere soon. Thanks!  
  
I really hope I didn't forget anyone! If I did, I didn't do it on purpose, I swear! Thanks again for being so supportive of this story. It's been a pleasure to write.   
  
Enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 4: Wrong Place, Wrong Time  
  
**Kaiba, what the hell are you doing in my body?**  
  
Kaiba jerked slightly, which caused Joey to reach out and put a hand on his shoulder as if to steady him. He was too busy trying to figure out who'd spoken inside his head to mind Joey's hand.   
  
~Hello?~  
  
**You know, for a genius you sure are slow. Now answer the question, Kaiba**  
  
~Yugi?~   
  
Kaiba realized that he sounded like he was retarded, but he hadn't all of a sudden expected Yugi to start shouting at him in his mind. He'd read about people who developed multiple personalities, among other mental disorders, that ended up having conversations with themselves, but Kaiba figured that this was a very different situation.   
  
**Yeah, whose body do you think you're in? It's certainly not yours!*  
  
Yugi was furious, of that Kaiba had no doubt. He had to admit, he'd never heard Yugi like this before. The younger man was always calm and kind, not angry. Yami was the one that got angry.  
  
~Okay, so I'm in your body. Where are you?~ Kaiba asked, his mental voice sounding every bit as condescending and cold as he could make it. He realized that Yugi had every right to be ticked at him for being in his body, but Yugi's tone sent him into defensive mode, and anger was the best way to deal with defensiveness.  
  
**I'm in the puzzle. When you got into my body, you locked me in my soul room. Now why don't you come down here so you can tell me to my face why you took over my body**  
  
Kaiba's eyebrow raised, and he noticed Joey giving him a strange look.  
  
"Yugi, are you okay? Did Kaiba hurt you more than it looks like? Maybe I should take you to a doctor."  
  
Kaiba ignored him.   
  
~How am I supposed to get 'down there' as you put it?~  
  
**Just will yourself into your soul room. That's where I'm waiting.**  
  
Kaiba was silent. How was he supposed to do that? What the hell was a soul room anyway?  
  
**Will you just do it!**  
  
Kaiba mentally winced. Yugi was really ticked off.   
  
He cleared his mind and just willed himself into his soul room. His vision went dark for a moment and when it returned, he found himself standing in the middle of a clean laboratory full of technical equipment that he recognized from Kaiba Corp. Yugi was standing directly in front of him, his clothes rumpled, his face red, and holding what looked like two bent wire hangers.   
  
"Um, hello Yugi," Kaiba said. He remained where he was, even though he wanted to explore the room.   
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"You told me to come, remember? Where is here anyway?"  
  
Yugi sighed. He dropped the bent hangers he was holding and made his way to one of the chairs in the room. He plopped down onto it and brushed his bangs out of his eyes.   
  
"This is your soul room," Yugi explained, motioning to the room at large, "this is the room in the puzzle where you go when you're not in control of the body. Since you're not supposed to EVER be in control of my body, you're going to stand there and tell me what you're doing here."  
  
Kaiba frowned. He walked over to the chair next to Yugi's and sat down. He was in Yugi's puzzle? How could that be?  
  
"Okay. . . so we're in the puzzle now? I thought Yami was supposed to be in here."  
  
"He is in here. Except that he's temporarily stuck in his soul room and I can't get him out! Now tell me what you did so I can try to undo it and get Yami out."  
  
Kaiba sighed. He really didn't want to tell Yugi about Gozaburo, because that was something no one else was ever supposed to know. However, since he was in the younger man's body, Kaiba figured that he owed him some kind of explanation.   
  
"How familiar are you with artificial intelligence?"  
  
Yugi's eyes widened, than narrowed. Kaiba recoiled slightly. He'd never seen Yugi angry. In a way, it was even worse than seeing Yami angry. After all, he expected Yami to be conceited and arrogant, which led to anger. In Yugi, however, the expression seemed alien.   
  
"Just humor me, okay? I'm getting to the explanation."  
  
After a few moments, Yugi's face cleared and he nodded, motioning for Kaiba to continue.   
  
"Artificial intelligence?" Kaiba asked again.   
  
"Yeah, I'm familiar with it. I've heard some things in the news about tech companies trying to create AI's from computer programs."  
  
Kaiba was impressed. He didn't think Yugi would know even that much.  
  
"That's a very crude explanation, but it'll work. My adoptive father, Gozaburo, was ill for a while before he died. Unknown to me, he built a mainframe and loaded his consciousness into it. He basically digitized his brain and loaded it onto a computer. The night I went to your house, I got a note from someone who signed it 'father'. It told me to go to a specific location and I went, after I dropped Mokuba off with you. Once I got there, I found the computer. I was stupid enough to try to see what was inside it, and when I put my fingers on the keyboard, wires attached themselves to my hands. They transferred Gozaburo's consciousness into my body."  
  
Kaiba glanced at Yugi, who looked very skeptical about the whole thing.   
  
"That seems a bit farfetched, Kaiba."  
  
Kaiba chuckled. "Oh, yeah, and being trapped inside a millennia old golden trinket that houses an ancient spirit doesn't?"  
  
Yugi smiled. "Yeah, I guess you do have a point. Anyway, continue."  
  
"Gozaburo had an Egyptian book of spells. When he realized I was still in the body and not in the computer like he'd been, he tried a spell that would cast me out of my body. I take it the spell worked, but I'm not sure how I ended up in your body."  
  
Yugi frowned, thinking. "I saw you at the park the other day. You were on the ground reading something. I called your name and you turned to me, but when you did, I felt something hit me. That must have been when you got thrown in here."  
  
Kaiba sighed. Finally, there were some explanations.   
  
"So I'm really stuck in your Millennium Puzzle?"  
  
Yugi nodded. "I guess. We'll have to talk to Yami since he knows more about the puzzle than I do."  
  
"So why did I have control of your body?"  
  
Yugi grimaced. "I woke up trapped in my soul room."  
  
"So how did you get out?"  
  
Yugi pointed to the hangers he'd left on the floor. "I broke out. I broke in here too, since I figured I could only contact you from in here."  
  
Kaiba was quiet for a moment, pondering everything he'd just learned.   
  
"Yugi? Damn it, Yugi, talk to me!"  
  
Joey's voice reverberated through the room and both Yugi and Kaiba winced.   
  
"You might want to go out there and explain things to him. I don't think he'd believe me," Kaiba said.   
  
Yugi nodded. "Yeah, you're right. While I'm talking to Joey, why don't you try to break into Yami's soul room? We need to talk to him."  
  
Yugi began to walk out of the room, but Kaiba stopped him.   
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
"To my soul room to get control of my body and talk to Joey."  
  
Kaiba nodded, even though he still couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do.   
  
"Hey, where is Yami's soul room?" Kaiba belatedly asked.   
  
"It's the door with the eye on it," Yugi called out, and then Kaiba heard a door close, which signified Yugi was back in his room.   
  
"The one with the eye, huh? Why didn't I think of that?" he muttered sarcastically.   
  
He walked over to the hangers Yugi had dropped and picked them up. Tentatively, he walked out of the room and found himself in a long, dark hallway. A bit ahead of him and to his left was one door, directly in front of it was the door with the eye on it. It was either wait here until Yugi got back or do something, so Kaiba walked over to the door. How was he supposed to break into something that didn't appear to be a door? His room and Yugi's both had key holes and knobs, which made it easier to see where you could possibly pick a lock. Yami's door was seamless stone. He couldn't even begin to guess where the lock he was supposed to pick was.   
  
He put out a hand to touch it, when he was suddenly seized by a feeling of intense cold. Images began to flood his brain and he could do nothing but watch.  
  
****  
  
"I am the pharaoh and you are the high priest. We will always be bonded together because of that relationship. Your magic is mine to command, and my life is yours to protect."  
  
Kaiba found himself watching Yami as he sat on an elaborate throne, dressed in rich, white robes and adorned with golden jewels. In front of him stood a tall man dressed in white and purple. When the man turned, Seto was shocked to see himself.   
  
"Of course, my pharaoh."  
  
The image changed, and Kaiba now found himself standing on a beach beside a fast flowing river. Ahead of him he could see Yami floating in the water. He was surprised when the same tall man from before, the one that looked like him, walked right by him and headed for the river. He walked into the water, not concerned for the robes he was soaking.   
  
"You shouldn't leave the palace and come to the Nile alone where you are open to attack, my pharaoh."  
  
Yami opened his eyes and stood up. He wore only a tunic wrapped around his waist, but seemed unconcerned about the lack of clothing.   
  
"This is my land, should I not be able to walk about it freely?"  
  
The high priest shook his head. "Not when people want to see you dead. That's why you have bodyguards."  
  
Yami chuckled and patted the high priest on the arm.   
  
"I sneaked out of the palace so the guards wouldn't follow. I should have known you would find me."  
  
****  
  
Kaiba found himself again facing the door to Yami's soul room. He shook his head, trying to get the images out of his head. What was all of that about? What could it mean?  
  
Before he knew it, his hand was touching the door, unconsciously tracing the outline of the eye. With a soft rumble, a crease around the door appeared and it slowly opened. Kaiba stood, open mouthed, at the threshold. He couldn't see anything inside, except for darkness, so he stood his ground.   
  
He was debating whether or not to go inside when something suddenly knocked him over. His breath was knocked out of him as he hit, and he found himself pinned on the ground under a very angry Yami.   
  
"I should have known you were responsible for this, Kaiba, now explain yourself!"  
  
**~~**  
  
Joey began to get concerned when repeated attempts to get Yugi's attention resulted in failure. He was awake; Joey knew that because his eyes were open, but he wasn't responding. Joey didn't know how grave the injuries Yugi had received were, but it looked pretty bad. His face was covered in blood from a bloody nose and busted lip, and his body was trying to curl in on itself as if to guard sore ribs. His throat was the worst, however. Bruises in the shape of fingers were already starting to form on the pale skin.   
  
"Yugi? Come on, buddy, answer me!"  
  
A slight tremble went through Yugi's body, before his eyes cleared and he winced in pain, moaning slightly. His hand immediately went to his throat where it touched the bruises. He tucked his knees up to his chest, hissing in pain as he moved. Joey laid a comforting hand on one of Yugi's knees, which caused the younger teen to look up at him.   
  
"Hey there. You were beginning to scare me. At the risk of sounding like an idiot, how are you feeling?"  
  
Yugi's eyes narrowed as he tried to assess his own injuries. He shivered and gasped at the pain that caused.   
  
"What happened?" Yugi finally managed to croak, his voice rough and barely audible.  
  
Joey's free hand curled into a fist as he recalled walking to the clearing and finding Kaiba strangling Yugi. What he got his hands on that bastard, he'd. . . He shook his head, returning his attention to Yugi, whose eyes were boring into him.  
  
"Kaiba happened, Yug. He beat you up and tried to strangle you."  
  
Yugi seemed to think about this for a moment. "No. Kaiba wouldn't. . . it wasn't him."  
  
Joey's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean, it wasn't Kaiba? I saw him."  
  
Yugi shook his head, while gingerly fingering the bruises on his neck. "No, it wasn't."  
  
"Um, Yug, just how hard did Kaiba hit you in the head?"   
  
Was Yugi loosing his mind? How could it possibly not have been Kaiba? When Yugi didn't reply, Joey continued to speak.  
  
"I saw him, Yugi. I got him off of you and we fought. It was Kaiba: tall, blue eyes, brown hair, and an ego the size of China. It couldn't have been anyone else."  
  
"Joey, there's a lot going on," Yugi rasped out again, sounding as if his vocal chords were covered in shards of glass. Joey winced just listening to him. "I need to explain, but not here."  
  
Joey followed Yugi's gaze and saw their surroundings. Lunch was over and everyone had gone back into class, but few students still lingered outside as they moved in between buildings. A few administrators came and went as well, and Joey knew that if they were spotted, Yugi would be dragged to the nurse and he'd be dragged back to class, where a detention no doubt would await him for being tardy. They had to leave the school.   
  
"Yugi, wait here for a moment. I'm going to talk to Tristan, and then we'll get out of here, okay?"  
  
Yugi nodded and leaned his head on the tree. He wrapped his arms around his stomach and closed his eyes, wincing as he did so. The anger returned to Joey so swiftly that he immediately got up and began to run back towards the school. He had to dissipate the anger, or he was likely to blow up at some unsuspecting stranger. Why would Kaiba turn on Yugi? Physically turn on him, at least, since the guy usually insulted Yugi anyway. What could have happened? The thought of what had happened inflamed Joey. Yugi had never been anything but nice and considerate to the rich bastard who hadn't deserved that consideration in the first place. How dare he take advantage of it and attack Yugi?  
  
Joey flung the door to the main building open so hard that it hit the wall. He rushed into the school and nearly collided with Ryou Bakura, who had been on his way outside.   
  
"Whoa, Joey, where's the fire? What's going on? What happened to your face?"  
  
Joey screeched to a halt and noticed Ryou through the haze of his anger. He took a few deep breaths and touched his face, wincing at the raised flesh beside his eye. He hadn't realized Kaiba had hit him until Ryou had pointed it out. It hadn't even hurt until then.  
  
"Kaiba happened. I swear, when I get my hands on that bastard, I'm going to kill him!" he growled, but calmed down when he noticed Ryou's shocked expression. "This is what happened," Joey said and grabbed Ryou's arm. He led the shorter teen outside and pointed at the tree where Yugi rested.   
  
"Is that Yugi? What's wrong with him?" Ryou asked, concerned.  
  
"Kaiba tried to strangle him. I was on my way to tell Tristan that I was taking Yugi to my house."  
  
Ryou frowned. "Why would Kaiba want to strangle Yugi?"  
  
"I don't know, but when I find out, Kaiba's history."  
  
Ryou was quiet for a moment. "Are you sure you want to take Yugi to your house? What if your father shows up? Wouldn't it be better to take Yugi to his house?"  
  
Joey shook his head. He'd thought about that.   
  
"He's pretty beat up, so I don't think Yugi could make it to his house. I don't want to get on the bus with both of us looking like this, so walking is our only option. My father shouldn't be home right now and maybe by this afternoon Yugi will feel well enough to walk home."  
  
Ryou turned pensive for a moment, before he reached into a pocket and took out a key ring. "Here, take this."  
  
Joey frowned. "What are those for?"  
  
"Take Yugi to my house. My father is in Egypt and I only live a few blocks away. That way, neither of you will have to walk too far or worry about your father. I'll tell Tristan and Tea about what happened and we'll meet you back at my place after school."  
  
Joey smiled widely as he took the keys from Ryou. On impulse, he gave the white haired teen a quick hug.   
  
"You're a life saver, Ryou. Thank you!"   
  
A thought occurred to Joey, and he finally realized that Ryou should be in class.   
  
"What are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in class?"  
  
Ryou smiled sheepishly. "Bakura took control of my body in Chemistry and mixed some stuff he wasn't supposed to. Mr. Sil wasn't very happy about the resulting mess and sent him to the principal. Unfortunately, I'm the one that has to take the blame."  
  
"Ouch! Good luck, man."  
  
"Thanks," Ryou said and continued on his way.  
  
Joey walked back out the door and headed towards Yugi. Ryou's house was definitely a better idea. Hopefully they'd be able to get some answers there.  
  
**~~**  
  
Kaiba didn't even have time to reply or defend himself before Yami slammed him down onto the ground again. Stars swam before his eyes and he tried to blink them away. The pressure Yami was exerting on his shoulders was getting stronger, and Kaiba realized that he was in trouble.   
  
Using the martial arts techniques he'd learned when he was younger, he managed to get his leg between his body and Yami's and with a deft push, shoved the spirit off of him. Yami flew back and slammed into the wall, grunting in pain. Kaiba used the time to get up, but found that he was still groggy from when his head had hit the ground earlier.   
  
Yami charged at him again, and Kaiba stepped aside, but not before Yami was able to swing a right hook at him, causing his lip to split and begin to bleed.   
  
"I thought you were a spirit, Yami. You're not supposed to be able to hurt me."  
  
Yami laughed, but there was no humor in it.   
  
"Welcome to my world, Kaiba. I exist here; therefore I can do what I want. I can kill you if I choose to. Believe me, I will if you don't tell me what's going on and why you locked me in my soul room." A thought suddenly occurred to him and Yami turned towards the closed door to Yugi's soul room. "Where is Yugi?"  
  
Kaiba leaned against the wall opposite Yami and wiped the blood off of his face.   
  
"He's explaining what's going on to Joey."  
  
"He's okay?"  
  
Kaiba shook his head. What was it with Yami anyway? Was he always this paranoid?  
  
"Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be?"  
  
Yami narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to Kaiba.   
  
"You're here, aren't you? That alone implies that something is going on."  
  
"Hey, I got you out of that room. Doesn't that count for something?"  
  
"How did you get me out of there?"  
  
Kaiba shrugged. How the hell was he supposed to know? He wasn't about to tell Yami about the visions he'd seen, because the spirit would probably think that he was insane.   
  
"I don't know. I touched the door and it opened. It seemed simple enough to me."  
  
Yami, as if to prove Kaiba wrong, went into Yugi's soul room. When he didn't find Yugi in there, he turned back to Kaiba.   
  
"Well, are you going to explain to me why you're here, or am I going to have to drag it out of you?"  
  
Kaiba clenched his jaw in anger. Who did the conceited spirit think he was, ordering him around? No one told him what to do, not even when faced with the strangest situation he'd ever been in. Just because he was confused didn't mean he was going to lose his cool and become someone else's servant   
  
"Why should I? Maybe I want to wait until Yugi finishes talking to Joey."  
  
"Maybe I want to send you to the shadow realm, Kaiba," Yami added.   
  
"I don't think you can do that, Yami. I have my own room here."  
  
Yami's eyes widened at that statement. "What?"  
  
Kaiba smirked in triumph. So Yami could be caught off guard after all.   
  
"Follow me and I'll show you my new accommodations," Kaiba said and led Yami to his room, his face a mask of triumph.   
  
Once Yami spotted the room, he stopped. His eyes narrowed and he seemed to lose his focus, almost as if he were directing his mind somewhere else.   
  
"This is impossible. The only thing that can create a soul room in the puzzle is magic. Magic created my room, magic created Yugi's when he solved the puzzle. How'd you do it, Kaiba? Why?"  
  
Kaiba's expression turned serious when he realized that Yami truly was worried and shocked. He couldn't help but feel bad for the spirit, whose existence had suddenly been radically altered. A small part of him, however, felt intense joy at having produced such a reaction.  
  
"I think magic did this too, but unintentionally."  
  
Kaiba went on to explain to Yami what had happened. When he was through, Yami looked even more shocked.   
  
"You mean I'm stuck with you? We're both going to have to share Yugi's body?"  
  
Kaiba couldn't help but chuckle. "Precisely. You're stuck with me, at least until you figure out how to get me out."  
  
*~*  
  
Okay, so there weren't nearly as many explanations as I promised, but the chapter got kind of long. They'll be in the next one. Until then! 


	5. Explaining the Unexplainable

Greetings!  
  
I hope you all have had a good week. I'm just glad that it's Friday!  
  
Reviews:  
  
Dee: I don't think that Seto knows the meaning of the word polite. . . that's probably one of those words he thinks doesn't apply to him.  
  
DarkMagicianGirl: Yami is definitely going to have a hard time sharing his home with Kaiba. I guess it's a good thing that they can each lock the door to their soul rooms. I agree that Yugi doesn't get angry very often. I think the closest I've seen is during the Yugi/Joey duel in which Malik controlled Joey.  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Yami might be 70 lbs lighter and a couple feet shorter, but they are in the puzzle. It's pretty much Yami's domain, so he could do whatever he wants there. It's probably the only place where Yami could ever physically beat Kaiba ^__^. I admit, coat hangers aren't the best thing to use the break into a room, seeing as how they're bulky and all, but like you said, it seemed like something Yugi would use. Flashbacks are great, aren't they? They're leading to something, I think. Spoilers are even better, though, so I'd definitely love the link.  
  
Ginger Ninja: Three is definitely going to be a crowd *evil snicker*. I think Kaiba is going to be the one most affected. Mr. 'I don't believe in magic' is going to have a hard time adjusting!  
  
Crystal Hikari: Bakura and just about anything flammable is always dangerous, but fun! It would have been funny to have him singe his eyebrows or something. . . but then poor Ryou would be the one left with the consequences. Yeah, Yugi is definitely going to be in for some major headaches. . . poor thing, like he didn't have enough to worry about already.  
  
Speed: The spell that Gozaburo used somehow (I haven't gotten to figuring out how just yet) made Yugi's body believe that Seto's consciousness was the only one in control, which caused the puzzle to lock itself up, trapping both Yami and Yugi inside. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but like I said, I hadn't really thought about it yet.  
  
Dragona 2007: Thank you very much for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Adrienne: The sharing of Yugi's body isn't going to go well for either of them. I'm looking forward to all the mischief it's going to cause! So Malik has a crush on Serenity, huh? ^_^ wouldn't he rather have a Malik/Serenity fic? Yami and Serenity would make an interesting pair. I'll definitely keep the idea in mind for when NKN is finished!  
  
DarkFoxy: Hey there! I'm glad you like this story as well! I originally started writing Yugi and Joey centered fics, but Kaiba is so much fun to mess with. Thank you for your kind words. Doing unique things makes writing much more fun.  
  
Mutou Yasu: Oh, wow. . . that sounds like a lot of fun. I hope that you have a wonderful trip to Japan! I'll talk to you when you get back.  
  
YoukoVegito: *blushing* Thank you very much! You just made my week!  
  
Lady of the Thread: You're very observant, you know that? ^__^ You're close. . . you're very close! You'll have to wait a few more chapters to find out just how close you are!  
  
Once again, thank you all for reviewing *hands out cyber Oreos and pints of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream* I'm going to try to upload a chapter of either this story or No Kinen Ni (or maybe both) every Friday, so hopefully you'll get some quick updates for a while. In the mean time, enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 5: Explaining the Unexplainable  
  
"Wow, this is nice."  
  
Yugi looked around the modest house and had to agree with Joey's words. The living room they were standing in was tastefully decorated in browns and dark greens, and was very clean. Pictures, as well as Egyptian artifacts, littered the walls, giving the room a warm and cozy feeling.  
  
They walked fully into the room and Yugi immediately headed for the couch. He was about to sit down to rest his tired body when he suddenly realized that if he sat, he was likely to get the furniture dirty. He had to clean himself up first.  
  
"I'm going to go clean up, Joey," Yugi said.  
  
"Are you okay? Do you want me to go with you?"  
  
Yugi smiled, touched at his best friend's concern. "I'm okay. It's nothing bullies haven't done to me in the past."  
  
He noticed Joey's expression darken, before the other teen plopped down on one of the couches. Yugi wasn't sure just how he was going to make Joey believe that it hadn't been Kaiba that attacked him, but he had to. They were going to need help dealing with Kaiba's adoptive father, and Joey and the rest of their friends were the only ones who could help.  
  
"You might want to go into the kitchen to get some ice for that eye before it gets worse," Yugi suggested.  
  
Joey brought his hand up to his eye and winced. "That bastard," he muttered, before silently going into the kitchen.  
  
Yugi shook his head at Joey's antics, before deciding that it wasn't a good idea to do that. He slowly walked around Ryou's house, feeling as if he were intruding. He had been surprised when Joey had told him they were coming here, but he'd been too tired to argue about going home. Besides, Yugi didn't think he could explain what had happened to his grandfather. Not yet, at least. He had to explain it to his friends first, before he was willing to try explaining to his grandfather.  
  
With little difficulty, Yugi found the bathroom and let himself in. He winced as soon as he saw himself in the bathroom mirror. His face was bloody and dirty, while his neck looked like someone had tried to strangle him. Yugi fingered the bruises on his neck, wondering just what kind of man Gozaburo was. He had been willing to kill Yugi in plain daylight, in a school yard, no less. What could he possibly have been thinking? He didn't have memories of what had happened, but he sure felt the aftermath. He was going to have to ask Kaiba to tell him what Gozaburo had said during the altercation.  
  
Yugi took some paper towels, wet them, and then gently wiped his face clean of the dirt and blood. The cuts weren't bleeding anymore, which was a good thing. Once he was done, he unbuttoned his shirt and took a look at his chest. The area around his ribs was already red and inflamed, which would no doubt turn into bruises tomorrow. There was also a red imprint of the Millennium Puzzle on his chest, which would also bruise.  
  
Sighing, he buttoned the shirt again. His clothes were dirty, and there were some rips to his uniform jacket. He gingerly took it off and folded it neatly. He sat down on the edge of the bathtub and figured that he should check on Kaiba. He closed his eyes and quickly went into his soul room. When he exited the room, he found a sight that nearly had him chuckling.  
  
Kaiba was leaning against the wall of Yugi's soul room, his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at Yami. Yami was leaning against the opposite wall, his arms also crossed over his chest, glaring at Kaiba. If Yugi hadn't been so glad to see Yami out of his soul room, he'd have laughed at how absurd they looked.  
  
"Yami! I see that Kaiba was able to get you out. I tried and tried but the door wouldn't open for me."  
  
Yami turned and looked at him, his eyes widening. "Yugi, are you okay? I though something had happened to you when I couldn't get out of my soul room."  
  
"I'm okay, Yami. Are you okay?"  
  
Yami nodded and couldn't help but glance at Kaiba, which told Yugi that Yami was not very happy with their current arrangement.  
  
"I trust Kaiba told you what happened?"  
  
"Yes, he did," Yami all but growled, still glaring at Kaiba.  
  
Yugi turned to see Kaiba returning the glare. He sighed. These two were going to kill each other before all of this was resolved.  
  
"We have to work together on this, okay? Kaiba's adoptive father is running amok and we have to do something to stop him so we can get Kaiba back in his body. Glaring at each other isn't going to accomplish that. Yami, you're our expert on the Millennium items. Is there anything you can do?"  
  
Yami took a deep breath and became pensive. "My memories are not all there, Yugi. But since magic did this, magic should be able to undo it. It would help to get a hold of the Egyptian spell book Gozaburo Kaiba used."  
  
"We'll have to go to my house for that, since I'm sure it's there," Kaiba added. "Not to mention that we need to get Mokuba out of there before Gozaburo. . ." he cut himself off, seeming angry at having said too much.  
  
"Before Gozaburo what?" Yami asked, knowing, as Yugi knew, that whatever Kaiba had been about to say was important.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
"Kaiba, this is not a game. You have dragged us into your family mess, and now you are going to tell us everything we need to know. I am not about to let something happen to Yugi because you are withholding information."  
  
"I didn't drag you into anything!" Kaiba snapped. "Yugi was looking for me that day, not the other way around."  
  
Yami stepped away from Yugi and was about to walk towards Kaiba, but Yugi stopped him. He didn't want them getting physical, not while they both resided in his head. He already had enough physical pain to deal with.  
  
"You did bring your brother over to the house in the middle of the night, did you not? That, Kaiba, was how you got us involved."  
  
Kaiba's jaw tightened, but he did not reply. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. To Yugi, it looked as if he were trying to regain his composure. Finally, he took a final, deep breath and looked at them.  
  
"Gozaburo was abusive. When I was younger, he managed to focus on me and leave Mokuba alone. If we don't get Mokuba out of there quickly, he's likely to harm him to get to me."  
  
Yugi's eyes widened and he felt incredible sympathy for Kaiba. He'd always been in a loving home, so he couldn't imagine what it was like to be hurt by the one person who was supposed to be caring for you. However, Yugi did know that they weren't about to let Mokuba get hurt.  
  
"Okay, we'll get him out. We're going to need help."  
  
Kaiba turned and advanced on Yugi until he was standing in front of him. Yami had left his position by the wall and had also moved towards Yugi. The link between Yami and Yugi was still strong, while the link between him and Kaiba was only just developing. From Yami, he felt rage and caution, while Kaiba radiated fear. Not that Yugi could tell by looking at him.  
  
"You are not going to tell those pathetic friends of yours anything that I've told you. It's bad enough that you know, Yugi. I'm not going to have my family's past be a topic of gossip for those losers."  
  
"Why are you so afraid of them knowing, Kaiba? We need their help. There may be three of us here, but there's only one body. We can't resolve this on our own."  
  
Kaiba's eyes narrowed as he towered over Yugi. Yami came to stand beside him, a tower of strength and calm.  
  
"Yugi is right, Kaiba. We can not do this alone."  
  
Kaiba didn't say a thing. Instead, he turned on his heel and walked back to his soul room.  
  
"Do whatever the hell you want."  
  
With that, he slammed the door to the room shut.  
  
Yugi sighed. "He really doesn't want Joey and the rest to know about his past. It still freaks him out, which is probably why he doesn't want to deal with it."  
  
"You're reading his thoughts?" Yami asked, amused.  
  
"No, the link isn't strong enough for that yet. I'm just getting emotions." He chuckled briefly. "I should probably tell Kaiba about the link, huh?"  
  
Yami shrugged. "Why not wait a little longer? You may find out more from his emotions alone than from anything he can tell you."  
  
"Yeah, you're right. So what now? How are we going to get him out of here?"  
  
"I do not know, Yugi. We will find a way, though. Rest assured, I'm not going to spend the rest of my life, and yours, sharing the puzzle with Kaiba."  
  
**~~**  
  
Joey paced the length of the living room, impatiently waiting for Yugi to return. He hadn't seen where Yugi had gone, but it'd been about a half hour by now and Yugi was still not back. He was beginning to worry that something had happened, so he put down the ice pack he'd been carrying and began to explore the house in search of the bathroom.  
  
When he found it, the first thing he saw was Yugi lying on the floor next to the tub, unconscious. Joey panicked and immediately rushed over to his friend.  
  
"Yug? Hey, Yugi."  
  
Yugi mumbled weakly, and Joey relaxed, realizing that Yugi wasn't unconscious, he was just asleep. He sighed in relief, noting that Yugi had cleaned up his face and was lying on top of his jacket. Gingerly, so as not to further injure him, Joey picked Yugi up and carried him back out to the living room, where he laid Yugi on the couch. The rest of the gang would be back in a little bit, so Joey figured he'd let Yugi sleep so he'd feel better when everyone else got there.  
  
The situation was just too strange. Joey still couldn't understand why Kaiba would turn violent like he'd done. Yugi rarely inspired that kind of treatment from anyone, not even bullies these days. It was true that a while ago, Joey had been one of Yugi's bullies, but even then, he would never have beaten up the kid. He teased him and messed with him, but he'd never have physically hurt him. Why would Kaiba want to all of a sudden?  
  
"My head hurts from all this thinking," Joey muttered to himself and settled down to wait.  
  
He'd gotten a soda out of the fridge and was sipping it when he heard a knock on the door. He frowned, wondering who it could be, and then remembered that he had Ryou's keys. He immediately got up to open the door and found Ryou, Tristan, and Tea all standing on the other side.  
  
"Hey, guys, come on in. I was beginning to wonder where you were."  
  
The trio made their way into Ryou's house and stopped at the living room, where Yugi was still sleeping.  
  
"Let me get you all something to eat and drink while Yugi wakes up," Ryou said.  
  
He put up his books and jacket, before making his way into the kitchen. Joey watched him go.  
  
"He told you what happened?"  
  
Tristan and Tea nodded, both glancing at Yugi.  
  
"Don't worry, he's just sleeping. I didn't want to wake him so he could recuperate some of his strength."  
  
"I still can't believe Kaiba really went nuts" Tea said.  
  
"Yeah. I've been trying to figure out why all afternoon, but I haven't come up with anything," Joey said. "The guy is cold hearted, but I don't think he's a murderer."  
  
"Did you talk to Yugi at all? What'd he say?" Tristan wanted to know.  
  
Joey shook his head and ran a hand through his messed up hair. "Yugi seems to think that it wasn't Kaiba that attacked him."  
  
"What?"  
  
All three turned to Ryou, who had just exited the kitchen carrying a tray of cold drinks and fruit. His eyes had widened in surprise.  
  
Joey shrugged. "That's what I said, but Yugi was insistent. I didn't get much more out of him."  
  
"Kaiba didn't attack me."  
  
They all turned as one to stare at Yugi, who was sitting up on the couch. He had brought his knees up to his chest and was hugging them, wincing slightly. He looked at each of them, before taking a deep breath and releasing it. His voice still sounded hoarse, but not as bad as it had been before.  
  
"What do you mean?" Ryou asked.  
  
As if on autopilot, Ryou passed out the drinks and snacks he'd brought with him, until they were each holding something. Yugi calmly sipped his drink, while Joey and the rest took their seats. Joey settled next to Yugi, while Tea sat on the opposite side. Ryou sat down on the loveseat with Tristan. Joey was itching for an explanation, but he knew he couldn't rush Yugi.  
  
"Seto Kaiba, his soul, at least, is currently stuck in here," Yugi said, pointing at his Millennium Puzzle. "There is another soul inside Kaiba's body. He was the one that attacked me."  
  
Joey felt his eyes widen in surprise. That wasn't what he'd been expecting at all. He'd expected for Yugi to make excuses for Kaiba; say that it wasn't his fault or something like that. He hadn't expected to be told that Kaiba's soul wasn't in his body anymore. It sounded ridiculous, but Joey had definitely seen enough unbelievable things in the past few years to know that anything was possible. He looked at the faces of his friends and saw similar expressions of surprise and disbelief on their faces.  
  
"Okay, so if Kaiba's soul isn't in his body, whose is?"  
  
"Why is he in the puzzle?"  
  
"What kind of magic was used?"  
  
Joey turned to Ryou, surprised at the last question. Then again, he held a Millennium Item as well, so he was probably more knowledgeable about things like this.  
  
Yugi sighed.  
  
"I don't know why he's in the puzzle. I think maybe I was at the wrong place at the wrong time," Yugi explained. "It's a long story, one that you should probably hear from Kaiba himself, but his adoptive father got control of his body and threw his soul out. He ended up in the puzzle. For a little while, up until a few hours ago, Kaiba was in control of my body, not me. Yami and I were trapped in our soul rooms."  
  
Joey's eyes widened at the statement. Hadn't he compared Yugi to Seto Kaiba earlier that day?  
  
"Wait a minute. This morning, at your house and on the way to school, I was talking to Kaiba?"  
  
Yugi thought about it, and then shrugged. "I guess. I don't remember anything until I saw you at the school, after Gozaburo had tried to kill me. See, he probably figured that Kaiba was in my body now and wanted to get rid of him."  
  
"But if this Gozaburo guy used to be Kaiba's adoptive father, why does he want to kill Kaiba?" Tea asked.  
  
"Like I said, that's part of the long story. As expected, Kaiba's being a bit tight lipped about the whole thing. He didn't even want me to tell you all this much."  
  
Ryou chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like him."  
  
He closed his eyes momentarily, and Joey figured that he was probably talking to his yami. Ryou shook his head once, and then opened his eyes.  
  
"Bakura says that it's possible to have multiple occupants in the puzzle. It's one of the few items that can house more than one spirit."  
  
"Yeah, we figured that. Um, Yami wants to try something. He says that it'll make you all believe what I'm telling you."  
  
Joey nodded, as did the rest of them, urging Yugi on. He trusted Yami, and wanted to see what the spirit had in mind. Yugi closed his eyes in concentration. His face contorted in pain, before there were two brilliant flashes of light. When Joey had regained his vision, he could see a transparent Yami and a very pissed off looking transparent Seto Kaiba standing behind Yugi. Yugi turned his head and smiled at Yami.  
  
"There you go. My current companions," he said to the rest of the room.  
  
Joey's jaw dropped. He'd seen Yami many times before, so he was used to that. It was always like looking at a different and transparent Yugi. Seeing Kaiba, transparent and still dressed as he'd seen him that morning, however, was another thing entirely. Not that he'd doubted Yugi, but it was different to actually see the proof.  
  
"Close your mouth, mutt. A fly might go in there and choke you."  
  
The put down, said in the same cold and demeaning tone Kaiba always used, snapped Joey out of his stupor. His jaw immediately tightened.  
  
"You bastard! Even when you've taken up unwanted residence in someone else, you have the guts to be conceited and cruel!" Joey yelled, outraged. "Why didn't you tell me this morning that it was you I was talking to?"  
  
Kaiba shrugged. "Would you have believed me?"  
  
"Probably not."  
  
"Well, then, there's your answer."  
  
Yugi turned back to Kaiba and studied him. He got a strange expression on his face, and Joey was about to ask if something was wrong when Yami spoke.  
  
"We do not know how to reverse what has happened, but we will need your help."  
  
Yami looked directly at Joey when he spoke, which Joey took to mean that he was being asked to please cooperate and behave. Joey sighed, and nodded once, agreeing to the unspoken request.  
  
"Okay, Kaiba, so why does your adoptive father want to kill you?" Joey asked.  
  
"Wasn't he dead?" Tea added.  
  
"How did he know what magic to use for the ritual?"  
  
The new voice startled Joey and he turned to see that Bakura had come out of the ring and was now staring at Kaiba.  
  
Kaiba actually growled at the questions he was being bombarded with. He shook his head and muttered to himself.  
  
"They need to know if they're going to help us, Kaiba," Yugi said.  
  
Kaiba turned on Yugi suddenly, looking at him with a look of contempt that made Joey want to break his jaw.  
  
"No, they don't! We don't need their help, Yugi. I don't need their help."  
  
Yugi wasn't about to back down, which made Joey proud.  
  
'Go Yug!' he thought.  
  
"Unless you want to spend eternity sharing the puzzle with Yami, and unless you want Mokuba to stay in Gozaburo's hands, you DO need their help."  
  
"Wait, what was that about Mokuba? Tea asked before Joey could voice the same thought, concern clearly evident in her voice.  
  
"Gozaburo had Mokuba locked up somewhere in the Kaiba mansion. Kaiba knows where it is, but we have to get there to get him out."  
  
"Why would he want Mokuba? Isn't it you he's after? Ryou asked.  
  
Kaiba didn't answer for a few more moments. After a while, however, he seemed to come to a decision and finally faced everyone else in the room.  
  
"He is after me, which is why he's got Mokuba," Kaiba finally answered, his voice tight with anger. "We have to get him out."  
  
"Okay, so we go to your house, get your little brother out and then what?"  
  
"We will need Gozaburo's book of spells," Yami answered. "We saw him reading from one, and we will need it to undo the spell he cast and return Kaiba's soul to his body."  
  
Joey took a deep breath and then released it.  
  
"Okay, so how are we going to do all that?"  
  
**~~**  
  
Solomon Moto was not a happy man.  
  
He'd specifically told Yugi to come home right after school because he had an appointment he had to go to, but Yugi was nowhere to be found. It had been an hour since school had let out and neither Yugi nor one of his friends had come by the shop. It was unlike Yugi to say he'd do something and then not do it, which is why Solomon felt worry more than he felt anger. If something had come up, Yugi would have called to tell him. The fact that he hadn't heard anything worried him.  
  
What added to Solomon's worry was that his grandson had been acting very strange that morning. It had surprised him to come home and find him passed out on his bed the night before, but he'd figured that with school and taking care of the shop, Yugi was just exhausted. That hadn't explained the odd behavior that morning, though. Yugi had acted as if he were a stranger in his own home, which was very unlike the teenager. Solomon trusted Yugi when he said that everything was fine, but he still worried. Now that Yugi was not home, he was beginning to panic.  
  
The bells that signaled that a customer had arrived pulled Solomon out of his thoughts, and he looked up to find none other than Seto Kaiba standing by the door. A strange sense of remembrance assaulted him as he recalled the first time the young man had graced his shop, and he shivered slightly as his mind vividly relived the events following that visit.  
  
"What can I do for you?" Solomon asked, standing behind the counter.  
  
Kaiba stood by the door for a moment and glared at him, before slowly making his way further into the shop.  
  
"Where is your grandson?" he asked, his voice dripping with venom.  
  
Solomon frowned. He wondered what had happened between Yugi and Kaiba to make the older teen react this way. He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt an urge to flee. Kaiba's eyes were cold, ruthless, and Solomon didn't think he was going to like what the young man had to say.  
  
"He's at school, I guess," Solomon said. "Didn't you see him there?"  
  
Kaiba walked forward until he was standing directly across from him, and Solomon had to fight the urge to back away. He was puzzled at his own behavior. He'd never reacted this way to Kaiba, because the kid had never been more than a spoiled brat to him. Kaiba was different today, though, and his demeanor didn't just annoy Solomon as it usually did, it frightened him.  
  
"You're lying," Kaiba spat. "I didn't see him at school after lunch."  
  
That comment immediately caught Solomon's attention. Why hadn't Yugi been at school after lunch?  
  
"Why are you covering for him old man? Where is he?"  
  
Solomon became angry. Who the hell did this kid think he was, coming into his shop, his home, demanding to be taken to Yugi?  
  
"Look, kid, I don't know what you want or what you have against Yugi this week, but he's not here. If you want to talk to him so badly, why don't you come back later?"  
  
"I don't want to come back later; I want to talk to him now!"  
  
"Okay, that's it," Solomon stated, having finally lost all patience. "You've overstayed your welcome, Kaiba, and unless you want me to call the police and have you escorted out, I suggest you leave."  
  
Kaiba laughed. It was a sound that sent chills down Solomon's spine. In that moment, he knew that he wasn't dealing with anyone rational. He walked around the counter and was about to go outside where other people could see what was going on when he was suddenly slammed into the counter. His lower back protested the rough treatment and a slight groan escaped his lips.  
  
"I'm sick of dealing with you, old man!" Kaiba growled, his face mere inches away from Solomon's. "You're useless, you know that. You always were. Since you're not willing to tell me where your grandson is, I'm going to find out on my own."  
  
Kaiba stepped away from Solomon and began to walk towards the door that led to the house. Solomon immediately snapped out of his stupor and followed, turning the young man roughly around before he got to the door.  
  
"I don't think so. This is my house and my business. You have no right to trespass."  
  
Kaiba's eyes narrowed, his eyes flashing dangerously. He advanced on Solomon again, grabbing the older man's arm before he could get away.  
  
"Listen, old man: no one tells me what to do. I came here to find your grandson and I will do just that. If you get in my way, I guarantee that you'll regret it."  
  
**~~**  
  
Ahh, poor Solomon. . . I think he's got quite a bit to worry about! I'll get to Mokuba soon, I promise! His scenes just aren't cooperating.  
  
Next up: Yugi gets yet another shock. . . Yami tries to talk to Kaiba about his past (try being the operative word). . . Gozaburo gets impatient and makes plans for Kaiba Corp. See you next time! 


	6. Confessions

Greetings!  
  
As scheduled, here is an update. This chapter is a bit short, so I apologize. The next few shouldn't be, though!  
  
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! does not belong to me, as much as I'd like it to. I'm just borrowing the characters for a bit. This story, however, does belong to me. To the person who stole my first chapter and my plot: shame on you. Wouldn't you feel better as a writer if you were complimented for a plot that you came up with?  
  
Reviews:  
  
Crystal Hikari: I second that: GO YAMI! He'll have a bigger part in this chapter. . .  
  
Mittens2200: Thank you very much *takes big shiny trophy and puts it on top of the computer where it'll always be visible* I'm glad that you've enjoyed all of my stories, as depressing as they've been.  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Thanks for the spoiler. I actually knew about it, because I'd recently read through battle 315 of the manga. It's cool, though! I never would have imagined it. Gozabaka will make another appearance in this chapter!  
  
Speed2: Since I don't know how high schools operate in Japan, I'm basing what I write on how an American high school would run. Here, we have either 4 classes that are an hour and fifty minutes long, plus lunch, or 7, fifty minute classes, plus lunch. You don't usually have the same teacher twice in a day, so there's no way for an afternoon teacher to know that you'd been in school that morning. The teacher would just assume that if you weren't in class, you hadn't been there all day. The reason no one called Solomon was because they didn't want to get yelled at for not taking care of Yugi, and Yugi didn't want to get babied and made to stay home.  
  
Isishikage: Thank you very much! I'm glad that you're enjoying the fic. The idea was strange, but it seems to have gone over well.  
  
TZ: Aww. . . pitying grandpa is a good thing. He's not so bad!! He's a dirty old man in the manga, but he's not so bad in the anime. You'll find out Solomon's fate in this chapter.  
  
GN: Eek! Fanfic withdrawal is a horrendous thing. . . I usually try to print stuff out when I go on a trip so that I'll have reading material. Or I write. I hope you're able to survive *sending GN some good vibes*  
  
Adrienne: I actually think a Malik/Shizuka pairing would be interesting. . . if you'd settle for a one shot, instead of a longer fic, I could write it before I finish No Kinen Ni. Plot bunnies are already running rampant in my brain.  
  
Mezu: YAY! As a writer, that's definitely what I like to hear. Thanks!!  
  
DarkFoxy: I'm glad you're enjoying the wild ride. I'm trying to update both fics every other week so as not to devote more time to one than the other. Hopefully it'll work out.  
  
Nezumiiro: *waves happily* Nope, you hadn't reviewed before, but it's never too late to start! Thanks for dropping by and leaving a review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Silver Saire: Thank you very much! I hope this update wasn't too long in coming.  
  
Joy-girl: Thanks for the compliment!!  
  
Ieyre: Wow. I'm blushing. Thank you for your kind words. I'm very glad that you're enjoying the way I'm writing Seto and his past. I think it's fascinating, because he is always so defensive about it. I thought it'd be interesting to see how he dealt with having it thrown in his face again. Ahhh, I love Seto torture.  
  
YumeTakato: I hope this update was soon enough for ya!  
  
Dragona 2007: I'm very flattered! Thank you very much.  
  
Lady of the Thread: Yup, you're close. Just a few more chapters, I promise! No, Kaiba is not going to be happy at all, especially when he can't master the whole 'blocking the link' thing. *chuckles evilly*  
  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon: ^_^ I love it when plots to end Gozaburo's life enfold. We could sure use some.  
  
YoukoVegito: Uh, oh. . . not the sugar rush!! Maybe next time, the candy could be hidden somewhere else??  
  
Solitare and Xpyne: Hey there! Thank you very much. I'm very glad that you like the story. It's a strange idea, so I could understand it being hard to explain. An abused, cranky Kaiba is a good Kaiba. The wonders of Kaiba torture just do no cease to amaze me. Especially when Yugi/Yami torture is involved as well! Thanks so much for reviewing!  
  
Katkid: You're welcome. I love your story! It's one of the more unique and well written ones I've come across. It'd be nice to have more updates ^__^. I'm glad that you like this story, though! Tanks for reviewing!  
  
SerafinaMoon: Don't worry about it, it's all cool! It's not good to defy dads when they tell you to go to get off the computer, is it? Thanks!  
  
Dee: Seto isn't very good at the cooperation thing. Sharing a body with two others is going to teach him some of it, though!  
  
Mutou Yasu: Hey there! I'm glad you made it back from Japan and that you had fun! Too bad you didn't get to see any new episodes. From the summaries I've read, and the episodes I've downloaded, it's pretty good. At least you got manga, though. That's getting pretty good too! Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Moonlight Shadow: In the American version of YGO, Yami, Seto, and Malik haven't been well developed yet. The battle ship episodes will go into Malik's past, while the stuff right before the Alcatraz duel tower stuff will go into Seto and Mokuba's past. Yami's stuff comes from the manga, so it's a lot of information from many different sources. It does make you see the characters differently, though. I've had fun playing with all of it.  
  
YAY! You all rock! Does anyone need more cyber Oreos? I've got plenty!  
  
Enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 6: Confessions  
  
Mokuba looked around the room once again, having by now memorized everything in the pantry he'd been locked up in.  
  
"At least I won't starve," he told himself sarcastically, eyeing the box of cookies he'd opened a while ago. "I'm glad I snuck these in here," he continued, "Seto would. . ."  
  
He trailed off at the thought of his brother. He didn't want to think about Seto. Mokuba couldn't understand why Seto had dragged him in here after picking him up from school. He'd been very happy to see Seto, because he'd spent the day worried about him. Mokuba had noticed that Seto had been acting strangely on the ride home and seemed very angry, but he'd figured it was because of whatever he'd had to do the night before. He'd asked, but Seto hadn't answered his questions. Instead, when they'd gotten home, Seto had dragged him out of the limo and had dumped him in the pantry. Mokuba had pounded at the door and yelled at his brother for hours afterwards, but Seto hadn't come back to get him.  
  
Mokuba sighed. He wanted to cry, but he knew that it wouldn't do any good. He had faith that his brother would come to his senses at some point and explain all of this to him. Seto had to.  
  
Suddenly, Mokuba heard the lock turning on the door, and he quickly got up to face it. It slowly opened, and the first thing Mokuba saw was Seto's rage contorted face. The second thing he saw was that Seto was dragging an unconscious Solomon Moto into the pantry.  
  
"Seto, what are you doing? What's wrong?" Mokuba asked as Seto threw Yugi's grandfather into the room. The old man landed with a thud, which made Mokuba wince. "Why are you doing this?"  
  
Mokuba's voice was high pitched, bordering on hysterical, but he didn't care. Seto was scaring him.  
  
"I don't owe you any explanations, you brat," Seto spat, making Mokuba's eyes water. "I've brought you a friend, though. He'll keep you company until he chooses to tell me where his grandson is."  
  
Mokuba frowned at that. "What do you want with Yugi?"  
  
Mokuba tried to walk towards Seto and out the door, but he was roughly pushed back into the room. He landed painfully on his butt, the tears that had filled his eyes falling down his cheeks.  
  
"I told you I didn't owe you any explanations."  
  
With that, Seto walked out of the room and locked the door.  
  
Mokuba stared after him for a long while, completely confused. Seto wasn't acting like himself at all. He'd never be that cruel. What happened to make him that way? What did Yugi have to do with it? Mokuba would have contemplated his brother's odd behavior longer, had a groan not drawn his attention to his fellow captive. He turned to find that Mr. Moto had pushed himself up onto a sitting position and was slowly shaking his head.  
  
"That spoiled little brat," Mr. Moto muttered. He gingerly touched the swollen spot on his face above his left eye and groaned.  
  
"Mr. Moto?"  
  
Mr. Moto's head lifted and his eyes widened when he saw Mokuba.  
  
"Mokuba, what are you doing here?"  
  
Mokuba shrugged. "The same thing you are, I guess. Seto locked me up in here too."  
  
Mr. Moto groaned again and then leaned back against the nearest wall. "What's gotten into him, Mokuba? I know that he's ruthless and cruel, but this is a little much."  
  
Mokuba sniffled. "I don't know, Mr. Moto. But that's not normal for him. He'd never lock me up."  
  
"I suppose not. I expect him to treat me like this, but not you."  
  
Mokuba sighed and moved so that he was sitting beside Mr. Moto.  
  
"What did Seto want from you?"  
  
Mr. Moto chuckled humorlessly. "He wanted to know where Yugi was. I told him I didn't know, because he wasn't home, but your brother didn't believe me. He knocked me out and brought me here."  
  
"That seems odd. What could he want with Yugi?"  
  
"I don't know, Mokuba. However, if your brother did this to me because I wouldn't tell him where Yugi was, I'm afraid of what he'll do to Yugi when he does find him."  
  
**~~**  
  
Gozaburo walked into the office that should always have been his and slammed the door behind him. He made his way over to the big desk on one end of the spacious office and threw Seto's briefcase onto the desktop. He looked around, noting the changes with disgust.  
  
When he'd had the office, it had been tastefully decorated with antique furniture, expensive paintings and crystal knick knacks. Seto had gotten rid of his priceless antiques and had put modern furnishings in their place. The paintings had been replaced with more neutral paintings by Monet instead of the ones by Picasso he'd had. His knick knacks had completely disappeared.  
  
Snorting at the ugliness of the office, Gozaburo settled on the comfortable, leather chair. A platinum picture frame on one corner of the desk caught his attention and he picked it up. The picture depicted a smiling Mokuba and a serious Seto standing in front of an amusement park called Kaiba Land. Fury built in Gozaburo when he realized that Seto had managed to build his 'paradise' after all.  
  
Snarling, he threw the frame against the nearest window, smiling as the glass shattered into tiny pieces.  
  
"I'm going to undo all the damage you've done to my company, Seto," he snarled.  
  
Gozaburo pulled the sleek, silver laptop towards him and booted it up. He wasn't as technically sophisticated as Seto, but he knew his way around his company's systems. Once the computer was operating, Gozaburo accessed the program that kept his company's status, financial reports, and ongoing projects in order. Seto had been stupid to keep the same program he'd used and would regret it as soon as he realized Gozaburo had suspended all of his ongoing projects. Kaiba Corporation had been built to be a supplier to the military, not for making useless toys. Gozaburo would make sure that Kaiba Corp. fulfilled what it had been meant to do.  
  
Suddenly, a log on screen popped up and Gozaburo's eyes widened in surprise. The system hadn't been password protected before. He stared at the screen, wondering why Seto would bother to protect the files in his own computer. If no one ever came into the office but him, why put a password on the company files?  
  
Shaking his head, Gozaburo tried Mokuba as a password, but it didn't work. He then tried Seto and Kaiba, but neither of those worked either. He was about to try again when a red screen popped up, informing him that the Kaiba Corp. computer system had been frozen and locked due to internal security concerns. It asked that Seto Kaiba enter the password to reset the system, or manually insert the control key in the mainframe computer.  
  
Gozaburo slammed his fists onto the desktop, furious.  
  
"That little, paranoid bastard!" he hissed. "Seto must have known that if anyone ever tried to access the system through his computer, they'd have access to everything. He programmed it so that after three tries, everything locked up until he could reset it. Now the whole damn system is useless!"  
  
He got up from the chair and began to pace the length of the office. He walked past the broken frame and slammed his foot down on it, breaking the pieces of glass that hadn't already broken.  
  
"Damn it! Now, I can't access the system without him. You will pay for this, Seto, I'll make sure of it!"  
  
Suddenly Gozaburo began to laugh. "It doesn't matter. I'll find him and make him access the system. Of that I have no doubt!"  
  
**~~**  
  
Yami stopped outside of Kaiba's soul room and looked around uncertainly.  
  
Currently, Yugi was in control of the body and was on his way, along with Joey, Tristan, and Ryou, to Kaiba's house. Once they got there, Yugi would give control of the body to Kaiba so he could get them inside and get Mokuba out. Until then, Kaiba had chosen to sulk inside his room. Yami didn't know why, but he felt a need to talk to the stubborn man.  
  
He hesitated a moment longer before opening the door and letting himself inside.  
  
"Don't you know how to knock?"  
  
Yami's head turned in the direction of the voice and saw Kaiba sitting on top of what looked like a metal table. He wasn't facing Yami, but must have heard him come in.  
  
"I know how to knock," Yami replied. "However, since this is my puzzle, I didn't see a reason to."  
  
Kaiba snorted. "I thought it was Yugi's puzzle."  
  
Yami made his way towards Kaiba, keeping his eyes on the brunette. "In a way, is now. 3000 years ago, before I died, it belonged to me. Since I owned it first, and I now live inside it, it is still mine."  
  
"Semantics. You should still know to respect someone's privacy," Kaiba retorted.  
  
Yami went around the table so that he was facing Kaiba.  
  
"You were the one who came here uninvited and took over without concern for the other inhabitants of the body."  
  
Kaiba's head snapped up, and Yami could see the fury burning in his eyes.  
  
"I didn't do it on purpose! Believe me, if I'd had a choice, I wouldn't have ended up here!"  
  
Kaiba took a deep breath and the end of the sentence, his cheeks flaring red. He must have felt the heat on his cheeks because he looked away from Yami. Yami, for his part, leaned against the sterile wall that made up Kaiba's soul room and folded his arms across his chest. His gaze bore into Kaiba, and he didn't say anything until Kaiba faced him again.  
  
"What do you want? Why are you in here?"  
  
Yami shrugged. "I want answers, Kaiba. You dragged us into this, now you're going to tell me why this whole thing freaks you out."  
  
Kaiba's eyes narrowed. "I'm trapped in a golden trinket, sharing a body with both of my rivals," he said. "You tell me what part of that shouldn't 'freak me out' as you put it?"  
  
Yami shook his head and took a few steps forward so that he was touching the table Kaiba was sitting on.  
  
"It is more than that, I can tell. Yes, the situation is unusual for one who is not used to dealing with spirits and magic, but your distress does not stem from the situation alone. You are a person who knows how to adapt to situations, and you have adapted well to this one. Your fear comes from your adoptive father, does it not?"  
  
Kaiba's jaw tightened, as did his fists. Yami could tell that the older teen was itching to hit something, but he restrained himself.  
  
"That is none of your business," Kaiba hissed, looking directly at him.  
  
"It is my business now, Kaiba. Your adoptive father made it my business."  
  
Kaiba was quiet for a moment, until he jumped off the table and began to pace. For a long while, the only sound in the room was that of Kaiba's quick footsteps.  
  
"That son of a bitch! Even now, he's still making my life miserable," Kaiba finally said. "He had no right, damn it!" he added, as if he were talking to himself. "The thing is, I brought this upon myself."  
  
Kaiba stopped pacing and looked at Yami. He wore a defeated expression on his face, as if he were tired of fighting, tired of pretending that everything was okay. His entire body was tense; Yami could tell that from where he stood. Kaiba was like a taut wire that was ready to break, and Yami only hoped that Kaiba didn't take him and Yugi with him. Yami nodded finally, urging him to continue.  
  
"Gozaburo didn't choose us, I chose him," Kaiba finally said. "We were orphans, because our relatives refused to take us in. I hated the orphanage, but I was unwilling to leave without my brother. When I found out that he was coming to the orphanage to visit, I learned all I could about him. I made up my mind then that he would adopt us and give us a better life. Well, he adopted us alright, but the life I got wasn't better," Kaiba added, his voice bitter.  
  
He had resumed his pacing, but would glance up at Yami every once in a while. "Do you think I was always like this?"  
  
Yami didn't know what to say, so he said nothing.  
  
"I wasn't. I used to laugh and play with other kids. My parents never demanded complete and blind obedience from me; they didn't insist that I become a cold and heartless business tycoon. No, that was all Gozaburo's idea. He needed an heir, needed someone to take over when he died. Let's just say that I learned his lessons too well and took over before he was ready to give it all up."  
  
Yami listened to the rushed words as they poured out of Kaiba's mouth with interest, having never before seen the young man so emotional. It wasn't much, just a tinge of regret, bitterness, and fear in his voice, but because it was Kaiba, it made a lot of difference. He wasn't sure what Kaiba meant, because he wasn't being very specific, but he understood that Gozaburo had shaped him into what he was now, and Kaiba wasn't very happy about that.  
  
"I took over the company to keep him from using my holographic systems as tools of war. He hated it. He hated me. He told me I wouldn't be able to get away with it, but I didn't listen. When he became ill, I ignored it, secretly hoping that he'd die and finally leave me alone. When he died, I rejoiced and did what I wanted with the company. Gozaburo wanted to build weapons; I wanted to build gaming systems. I won. Until now, that is."  
  
"He's not as dead as you thought," Yami stated. "You're afraid of what he's going to do."  
  
Kaiba stopped pacing again and plopped down onto one of the chairs in the room.  
  
"He's capable of anything, Yami, absolutely anything. If you think I'm cold and ruthless, just keep in mind that he was my teacher. He's hundreds of times worse than I could ever be. Because of Mokuba, I have a part of my heart left untarnished. Gozaburo has no heart left."  
  
"Well defeat him together, Kaiba."  
  
Yami turned towards the sound of the new voice and saw Yugi standing by the door. His eyes were shinning, which meant that he'd been standing there long enough to hear Kaiba's confession.  
  
"Sorry, I didn't mean to overhear. We're at your house now, Kaiba."  
  
Kaiba nodded and stood up. "The goal is to get Mokuba out and get the spell book. The rest we'll worry about at your house, right?"  
  
Yugi and Yami both nodded.  
  
"Fine. Let's do this."  
  
Yami took a hold of Yugi's arm and led him out of the room, closing the door behind him.  
  
"What was that about, Yami?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Kaiba's father still scares him. He warned me that the man was ruthless."  
  
Yugi frowned. "Yeah, I figured as much. We have to stop him."  
  
Yami nodded. "We will, Yugi. One way or another, we will."  
  
**~~**  
  
Kaiba returned to the outside world only to hear Joey complaining about something or other.  
  
"Shut up, mutt, or you'll attract the guard's attention."  
  
Joey turned to look at him, his eyes wide.  
  
"Damn! It's going to take me a long time to get used to that. One minute, I'm talking to Yugi, the next, you're insulting me!"  
  
"That's your problem, Wheeler, not mine."  
  
He began to make his way towards the side of the house, still feeling disgusted with himself for telling Yami everything. He hadn't meant to, especially not to Yami. He'd been so tired and worried about his brother, not to mention a bit off balance because of his current state of limbo, that he'd just let it all go. He regretted it now, because Yami could use what he'd told against him. Yugi could too, since Kaiba had no doubt he'd been in the room long enough to hear what had been said. It was done now, he couldn't undo it. He just had to find a way to deal with it.  
  
"Where are we going?" Tristan asked.  
  
"There is an underground entrance on the back lawn, an entrance that only I know about. It leads to my underground workroom, but we'll be able to get to Mokuba from there."  
  
When he reached the spot on the fence where he knew he could jump over without being seen by the security cameras, he automatically jumped as he'd done many times before, expecting to reach the top of the fence and pull himself over. He was quite shocked when not only did he miss the top of the fence, but his legs gave out from underneath him when he landed and he ended up on the floor on his butt.  
  
He cursed. "I forgot I was in Yugi's body. I'm not going to be able to reach the top like this."  
  
Joey smirked, but became serious again when Kaiba glared at him.  
  
"Need a lift?" Joey asked, amusement clearly in his eyes.  
  
Growling, Kaiba nodded. He hated to admit he needed help, but he wasn't going to get over the fence on his own. Joey laced his fingers together, creating a cradle. Kaiba put his right foot on it and tested the hold. It seemed pretty secure.  
  
"At the count of three, give me a push up. I'll do the rest."  
  
Joey nodded. At three, Joey pushed him up. Kaiba reached the top of the fence and vaulted over, this time prepared to fall. When his legs reached the ground, he tucked them under and rolled backwards, coming to a standing position in no time. He smiled. Yugi's smaller body rolled much easier than his taller one.  
  
"Tristan, you and Ryou walk to Domino Elementary. After we get Mokuba, I'm going to take one of my cars, so I'll pick you up there. Wheeler, jump the fence and come in with me."  
  
"Shouldn't we all go?" Tristan asked.  
  
Kaiba shook his head. "Internal sensors guard every part of the mansion. It'll be easier to mask two people instead of four. Besides, we'll have Mokuba on the way out, which will make it that much more difficult. Wheeler and I should be fine."  
  
He stopped speaking when something occurred to him. "Do either of you have a cell phone?"  
  
Ryou nodded.  
  
"Do you know his number?" Kaiba asked Wheeler.  
  
"Yeah, I know it," Joey said once he'd jumped the fence.  
  
"I'll call you when we're on our way to pick you up. If you don't hear from us in an hour, go to the game shop and tell Mr. Moto what happened. He may be able to do something."  
  
Tristan and Ryou looked uncertain, but they both nodded.  
  
"Take care of yourselves, okay?" Tristan said.  
  
Kaiba and Joey both nodded.  
  
"Good luck."  
  
Kaiba turned, motioning for Joey to follow. He could feel his heart speeding up in his chest as he began to walk towards the entrance to his workroom. They were going to have very little time to get into the main house, across to the basement where the pantry was and get Mokuba out. If they were caught, the guards would not take kindly to intruders, but Kaiba was hoping that once they'd gotten Mokuba out, he could just say that he'd invited friends over.  
  
This plan would only work if Gozaburo wasn't home. If he was, they'd all be in a lot of trouble.  
  
**~~**  
  
So what do you think? Should Gozaburo be home? Hmmm. . . Until next time! 


	7. A Different Perspective

Greetings!  
  
Here is the latest chapter. I usually take a week to write a chapter, but I had no time to do it this week. I wrote this one in about three hours tonight, which means that it'll probably suck and have lots of spelling errors. My apologies! I just don't want to get out of my Friday night posting schedule, or else I won't get back to it. I promise to do better next time!  
  
I won't reply to reviews this time, because it's so late and I seriously need sleep. But I thank every one of you for taking the time to review *hands everyone cones of chocolate chip ice cream* You all rock!!  
  
Disclaimer: They're not mine; I'm just borrowing them for a bit!  
  
Legend (I've never done this; I just assumed it'd be self explanatory, but just in case):  
  
**Yugi to Yami or Kaiba**  
  
*Yami to Yugi or Kaiba*  
  
~Kaiba to Yugi or Yami~  
  
Sheesh, that's confusing! Now on to the chapter. Enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 7: A Different Perspective  
  
Kaiba moved quickly down the stairs that led to his underground workroom. Behind him, he could hear Joey grunting and panting as they quickly descended. He smirked at the other teen's discomfort, glad to hear the mutt struggling with the decline. He would have enjoyed the moment more, but a voice in his head made him jerk out of his thoughts.  
  
**That's not nice**  
  
Kaiba rolled his eyes, knowing that Yugi wasn't around to see him do it.  
  
~It may not be nice, but it sure is amusing,~ he countered.  
  
**Amusing, why, because he's suffering and you're not?** Yugi insisted.**Is it a power trip for you?**  
  
Anger flared through Kaiba's mind like a flame, and he struggled to squash it before Yugi got the satisfaction of knowing that he'd gotten a reaction.  
  
**Don't bother, Kaiba, I can feel what you're feeling as soon as you feel it**  
  
That caught Kaiba so completely off guard that he stopped, his foot perched above the step below it. Unfortunately, Joey didn't see him stop and plowed right into him. His quick reflexes allowed him to regain his footing fairly quickly, while Joey tumbled down a few steps before regaining control.  
  
"Will you watch where you're going, you arrogant jerk? What are you trying to do, kill me?"  
  
Kaiba ignored him. Instead, he concentrated on Yugi's mental voice.  
  
~What do you mean you can feel what I feel?~  
  
Yugi didn't immediately reply, and Kaiba could feel apprehension slowly sifting though his anger. That had to be Yugi's feeling, because all Kaiba felt was a raging anger.  
  
**You're in my body, Kaiba. You're sharing it because of the magic of the Millennium Puzzle. A side effect of that is that a bond is created to the host, in this case, me. I'm able to feel what you feel when you're in control of my body or when you're in your soul room if I concentrate hard enough. I can do the same with Yami. The two of you can do the same with me if you wanted to. You can feel my emotions just as I can feel yours**  
  
Kaiba was speechless. His inner thoughts and emotions, things that he guarded more than he guarded anything else, were now an open book for Yugi Moto to look through as he pleased? That was unacceptable. There was no way he'd let Yugi have that much access to himself. Not even Mokuba knew about half of the things he thought about or felt, and he wasn't about to let Yugi into the inner part of his mind.  
  
*I don't think this was a good time to tell him that, Yugi*  
  
Kaiba winced when Yami's voice entered his mind. Great. Now the spirit could feel his emotions and read his thoughts too?  
  
**Yami doesn't have access to your mind, Kaiba. He has access to mine because I allow it. You don't have to. I'll teach you how to block the link to me if you want, but that'll have to wait**  
  
"Hey, Kaiba, what's keeping you?"  
  
Kaiba ignored Joey. A part of him wanted to let Yugi into his mind to see the horrors and baggage that lived there. Maybe then he could stop pretending. Maybe Yugi would be willing to just accept him the way he was, scars and all. The other, stronger, part of him, however, rebelled at the thought. Gozaburo's voice entered his mind suddenly, a long forgotten memory drifting unwanted to the surface of his mind.  
  
'You must never let another see your weaknesses. They will exploit them and destroy you with them. The strong survive, Seto, never forget that.'  
  
~You will teach me how to block the bond now, Yugi~ Kaiba managed to finally say, his mental voice as calm as he could make it. He heard Yugi's mental sigh and for a fraction of a second wished that he could take back what he'd just said.  
  
**Very well** Yugi finally said. **Imagine that your mind and mine are connected by a steam of light. To block the stream, simply imagine a wall between us, blocking the light's passage** Yugi was quiet for a moment, until he seemed to come to a decision. His mental voice seemed sad when he spoke. **I'll block the connection on my end if it'll make you feel better** Yugi said. Kaiba couldn't be sure, but it seemed as if Yugi was hoping that he wouldn't ask him to.  
  
"Kaiba! What's wrong with you?"  
  
Kaiba shook his head and returned to his surroundings. He couldn't see Joey, but he felt the other teen standing somewhere to his right. He could hear soft tapping and could imagine the blonde tapping his foot impatiently.  
  
"What's the matter? Is it time to feed you already?"  
  
"Why you arrogant little. . ." he trailed off suddenly. "You know, it's hard getting pissed at you when you're in Yugi's body. The insults just don't sound as bad in Yugi's voice."  
  
Kaiba said nothing. Instead, he visualized what Yugi had told him to, feeling silly for resorting to this crappy mumbo jumbo instead of the cold facts he was used to dealing with. Once he'd put up the wall between himself and Yugi, he continued to walk down the stairs, leaving Joey behind.  
  
He came to a stop in front of a wide, metal door. Kaiba cursed, realizing that the retina scanner that served to identify him and allow him access would no longer recognize him as Seto Kaiba. If he even tried, the security protocols would immediately alert Gozaburo about the break in. Kaiba definitely wanted to keep Gozaburo away from this place.  
  
He ignored the retina scanner and instead opened up the small key pad just below it. Inside the key pad was a small screen with its own keypad. Kaiba quickly typed in a few lines of code, before returning the key pad to its previous position.  
  
"What are you doing?" Joey asked.  
  
Kaiba turned to him. The soft illumination from the retina scanner bathed half of his face in blue light, giving him an eerie appearance.  
  
"The retina scanner that allows access to the workroom will no longer recognize me. I've reprogrammed the system to accept a manual password instead of the scan."  
  
Without waiting for a reply from Joey, Kaiba entered the password he'd programmed the system to recognize and sighed in relief when the door opened to reveal a dimly lit hallway and another door.  
  
Joey entered first and stopped in front of the other door.  
  
"This way," Kaiba said, turning to his left. He set a quick pace, wanting to get to Mokuba as soon as he could.  
  
Joey had to run to catch up with him, even though his longer legs granted him wider strides.  
  
"What was behind that door?"  
  
"My work room," was all Kaiba said. The walked in silence, until Joey spoke again.  
  
"So we're under your mansion?"  
  
Kaiba nodded.  
  
"Wow. . . a whole network of tunnels. What are they here for?"  
  
Kaiba gritted his teeth in annoyance. Why couldn't Wheeler just keep his mouth shut?  
  
"Gozaburo was paranoid. He wanted a way to escape if he ever had to, so he had this whole network built."  
  
Conversation quieted again when they reached another set of stairs, this one shorter and better lit, than the last one.  
  
"The kitchen is right up there. Be quiet and follow me."  
  
Kaiba quickly made his way up the stairs and opened the door. He had an explanation ready in case someone happened to be in the kitchen, but was relieved to find it empty. He immediately went to the pantry where he'd seen Gozaburo lock Mokuba and found a sturdy lock standing in his way.  
  
"I'll get something to cut that," Joey said without being asked. He returned a short time later with a pair of industrial strength metal cutters.  
  
"Where'd you get those?" Kaiba asked, surprised. The cutters weren't usually stored in the kitchen, and he hadn't seen Joey leave the room.  
  
Joey shrugged. "They were lying on the counter over there."  
  
'How convenient,' he thought.  
  
It had to be a trap. Gozaburo must have known that he'd come. If he'd left the cutters out, then it meant that he wanted Mokuba to be freed. That would make sense. Mokuba didn't really matter to Gozaburo; Kaiba was the one he was after.  
  
Shaking his head, Kaiba cleared his mind of stray thoughts. Once he got Mokuba out of danger, he could ponder the rest.  
  
He made quick work of the lock and opened the door. He didn't have a chance to say anything, because as soon as he was through the door, he found himself in someone's arms.  
  
"Yugi, thank goodness. Are you okay? Did Kaiba find you?"  
  
**Grandpa? What's he doing here?**  
  
Kaiba was just as shocked as Yugi. The arms around him were warm, though. Mr. Moto was rubbing his back gently, and Kaiba hated himself for feeling secure and comforted in the embrace. Quickly, he pulled out of the older man's arms and looked at him, noting the ugly looking black eye he was sporting.  
  
"Yugi!"  
  
Kaiba turned to see his brother standing behind him.  
  
"Something's wrong with Seto. We have to get out of here and figure out what's going on before he comes back."  
  
Kaiba's heart constricted at the fear in his brother's eyes. The fact that Mokuba thought he'd done those things made him feel even worse. Ignoring Mr. Moto, he turned to Mokuba.  
  
"I'm here, Mokuba. I'm Seto. It's a long story, but I'm not in my body. I didn't lock you up in here."  
  
Mokuba looked up at him, his eyes narrowed in confusion.  
  
"Yugi, what's wrong with you?"  
  
Kaiba sighed. Yugi was saying something to him, but he chose to ignore him.  
  
"Ask me anything, Mokuba. Ask me something that only Seto would know so I can prove to you that I'm here."  
  
Mokuba swallowed, but nodded.  
  
"Our first night in the orphanage, I asked you something. What did you answer?"  
  
Kaiba closed his eyes as the sudden rush of memories of that night flooded into his mind. When he opened them again, both Mokuba and Mr. Moto were staring intently at him.  
  
"I told you that I'd never leave you, in response to you asking me if I was going to leave you like mom and dad left us."  
  
Tears welled up in Mokuba's eyes and he threw himself into Kaiba's arms. "I knew that you'd never turn on me, big brother. I was so scared."  
  
"I know, Mokuba, I know," Kaiba said, gently stroking his brother's back.  
  
Suddenly, Mokuba pulled away.  
  
"What happened? Why are you in Yugi's body? Where is Yugi? Who is in your body?"  
  
"Where is my grandson," Mr. Moto asked, his voice tinged with anger. "What have you done to him?"  
  
Kaiba held his hands up. "Yugi is fine, Mr. Moto. He's listening to everything we're saying."  
  
**Tell him to ask you something that only I would know so you can ask me and prove to him that I'm in here. Otherwise, he's not going to leave you alone, and we don't have time for lengthy explanations**  
  
Kaiba nodded.  
  
"Mr. Moto, Yugi wants you to ask me something that only he'd know so I can ask him and reassure you that he's okay."  
  
Mr. Moto thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Ask him how old he was when I taught him to ride a bike."  
  
~Did you hear that, Yugi?~  
  
**Yeah. Tell him that he didn't teach me how to ride a bike. My father taught me when I was four**  
  
Kaiba repeated what Yugi had told him. Mr. Moto's jaw opened in surprise.  
  
"How? Where is he?"  
  
"I'm not exactly sure, since all this magic stuff is new to me, but Yugi says that it's the puzzle that's allowing us to do this. Yugi and Yami are in the puzzle while I'm out here."  
  
He then turned to Mokuba. "Gozaburo isn't dead, Mokuba. He digitized his brain and is now in my body. We have to get out of here before he finds out that we came to get you."  
  
Mokuba nodded, knowing that Kaiba would explain everything to him later.  
  
"We have to get out of here. Joey, go with Mokuba and Mr. Moto to the garage and wait for me there."  
  
"What about you?" Joey asked.  
  
"Yami wants me to find the book of spells Gozaburo used to cast me out of my body. He'll probably have it in my office."  
  
"Is it a good idea to separate, Seto? Wouldn't it be better to stay together?"  
  
Kaiba shook his head. "No, Mokuba. I want you out of here. I don't want you anywhere near that man, you understand? Joey, if for some reason I'm not at the garage in thirty minutes, pick one of the cars and leave. I'll get out on my own."  
  
"Now wait a minute. This is my grandson's life you're playing with."  
  
Exasperated, Kaiba turned to the elder Moto. "We don't have time for this. I want my little brother out of this house and Yugi wants you out of this house. I know my way around so I'll get out on my own."  
  
Without waiting for more arguments, Kaiba led the way to the living room. Halfway there, they were stopped by one of the servants.  
  
"Mr. Kaiba, will your friends be staying for dinner?" the woman asked.  
  
Kaiba opened his mouth to reply, but shut it when he realized the woman wasn't addressing him.  
  
"No, they're not. I was just showing them out," Mokuba replied smoothly.  
  
She nodded. "Your brother called and said that he was on his way home, so I'll begin dinner for the two of you."  
  
"Very well, thank you," Mokuba said and dismissed the woman.  
  
"We don't have much time," Joey said as they exited the kitchen and walked down the hallway to the living room. "We have to get out of here before that idiot shows up."  
  
Kaiba nodded. He couldn't agree more. "Thirty minutes, Joey. That's all the time you are to give me, understand?"  
  
Reluctantly Joey nodded.  
  
With one last look at his brother, Kaiba made his way to his office. He looked around, noting that everything was quiet. Gozaburo probably hadn't made it home yet. He had about ten minutes to look thought the office and come up with the book before he'd have company.  
  
Kaiba quickly entered the room and was already scanning the book shelves that lined it when the slamming of a door caught his attention. He whirled around and saw Gozaburo standing in front of the office door.  
  
"I knew you'd come, Seto. I don't know why you love that little brat so much, but I knew I could count on you to rescue him," Gozaburo said as he approached.  
  
Kaiba took several steps back but stopped when his back hit the bookcase. He looked around, planning his escape. He knew the office like the back of his hand, which was an advantage. Finding the spell book was going to be almost impossible now.  
  
"You're not going to win this, Gozaburo. I'm not going to let you."  
  
Gozaburo laughed. "You always thought you were better than me, Seto. I'm sorry to tell you that I made you. Whoever you think you are now, you owe to me. Never forget that."  
  
With that, Gozaburo reached out and grabbed him by the collar. The move came so quickly that Kaiba didn't have time to react. Gozaburo threw him face down onto the desk and pinned him with his knees. Yugi's stature was a disadvantage in this case, because his shorter legs dangled, leaving Kaiba with no leverage.  
  
Gozaburo roughly pulled off Yugi's school jacket and reached underneath to tear off the white shirt Yugi wore, leaving him naked from the waist up. A cold, metal rod was placed on his back and Kaiba froze. He knew what was coming. He could feel the length of the fire place poker along his back and clearly remembered what Gozaburo used to do with it. His mind immediately tried to go to the place he'd trained it to go when Gozaburo decided to beat him, the place where nothing could hurt him, but Kaiba fought it. He had to stay focused this time. He had to get away.  
  
"Joey!" he yelled, hoping the blonde would hear him. He couldn't get Gozaburo off of him on his own and he knew it. He needed Joey's help.  
  
The first blow to his back tore Kaiba from his thoughts. He involuntarily cried out, having not prepared himself for the blows as he used to. The pain, his position on the desk, and the cold voice taunting him all threw Kaiba back to when he'd first arrived at the Kaiba mansion. A time he wasn't too fond remembering.  
  
"What you need is a reminder, Seto. You haven't had one of these in a while, which is why you've become so disrespectful," Gozaburo said. "Don't worry; I'll be more than happy to mold you back into shape."  
  
A second blow followed, and Kaiba again cried out. He knew that the voice he was hearing was his own, but his mind couldn't help but substitute it with his adoptive father's crueler one. A third blow, and Kaiba found himself paralyzed with a fear and helplessness he hadn't felt in the years Gozaburo had been dead. It was as if he was ten years old again, and he hated himself for his weakness. Maybe Gozaburo had been right after all. Maybe he'd never been worthy.  
  
*Kaiba, I'm taking over now*  
  
The last thing Kaiba heard before succumbing to the darkness was the sound of Gozaburo's laughter.  
  
**~~**  
  
"Did you really think you could get away from me Seto? I made you, you ungrateful little orphan. I got you out of that hellhole of an orphanage and molded you into the perfect heir. You were always brilliant, but childish and idealistic. You would have been eaten alive if you'd stayed the way you were. I made you stronger, Seto. I made you who you are."  
  
Yami sensed the motion of the metal rod as it descended towards his exposed back. He concentrated and erected a barrier around himself at the last possible moment. He heard Gozaburo cry out in surprise, before he heard the sound of metal hitting the desk he was still pinned against. With a burst of magic, Yami threw Gozaburo away from him. He straightened up, wincing as the wounds on his back reminded him of what Gozaburo had been doing.  
  
"What the hell?"  
  
Gozaburo was staring at him with wide eyes. Yami tried not to laugh at how ridiculous Kaiba's face looked with that expression.  
  
"How can you take pleasure in inflicting pain on others?"  
  
The man continued to stare. "You're not Seto, are you? You're not the other boy either, though. I've seen him and he didn't act like you." He stopped talking. "You're the spirit of the puzzle, aren't you?"  
  
Yami's eyes widened slightly. "What do you know about that?"  
  
Gozaburo chuckled. "I spent years in a computer with billions of bytes of data at my disposal. I know of the myth surrounding the Millennium Items. I didn't recognize that necklace you're wearing as one at first, but now I know what it is."  
  
"Where is the book of spells you used to cast Kaiba's soul out of his body?"  
  
"Do you really think I'm going to tell you?"  
  
Yami clenched his hands and took a few steps towards Gozaburo. "Tell me where it is!"  
  
"Or what?"  
  
Yami was standing directly in front of Gozaburo now. He concentrated on his magic and could feel the third eye glowing on his forehead.  
  
"You don't want to know where I can send you."  
  
Gozaburo laughed. "You won't destroy this body," he said calmly. "You want Seto out of that boy's body, I can tell. He's not easy to get along with, so I can understand why you want him out. You'll have to ask nicely and maybe I'll consider giving you the book."  
  
Exasperated, Yami reached out and put his hands around Gozaburo's neck. "Where is it?"  
  
"Step away from Mr. Kaiba!"  
  
Yami turned his head slightly and saw three armed guards standing by the door.  
  
"What took you idiots so long?" Gozaburo yelled. "Shoot him!"  
  
Yami didn't want to risk not being able to anticipate the trajectory of a bullet in time to shield himself, so he released Gozaburo. Before completely pulling away, however, he reached out and took Kaiba's locket off of Gozaburo's neck. Calmly, Yami slipped the locket around his own neck, the card gently coming to rest over the Millennium Puzzle.  
  
"This is not over."  
  
With that, Yami gathered the dark energies around himself. He created a shadow portal and transported himself to where he thought Joey was. When he exited the portal, he found himself in a room full of the machines modern people used to get around. He spotted Joey at the far end of the room and immediately walked over.  
  
"There you are! What. . ." Joey trailed off as he noticed that he wasn't wearing his shirt or jacket. "What happened? My god, Kaiba, you're bleeding!"  
  
Yami let Joey take a look at his back, before turning away.  
  
"Kaiba is probably in his soul room right now, but I suggest we get out of here fast. The guards will find us soon."  
  
"Yami?" Joey asked.  
  
"Yes. Joey, do you know how to operate one of these things?" Yami asked, pointing to the car they were standing in front of.  
  
"Of course. Come on, everybody; let's get the hell out of here."  
  
Yami sat in the backseat next to Mr. Moto as Joey maneuvered the car out of the garage. Mokuba instructed him on an alternate way to get out of the grounds, and they did so without further interference.  
  
"Let me look at those cuts, Yami," Mr. Moto said.  
  
Yami turned his back to Yugi's grandfather without a word.  
  
"What did he do these with?"  
  
"A fireplace poker," Mokuba answered from the front seat.  
  
Yami hissed in pain as Mr. Moto pressed something to one of the cuts.  
  
"Did your adoptive father do this a lot? Did he do it to you?"  
  
Mokuba was quiet for so long that Yami began to wonder if he'd heard Mr. Moto's question. He felt something warm drop onto his shoulders, and looked down to see a black jacket covering him.  
  
"Gozaburo never laid a hand on me," the younger Kaiba finally answered. "I'm sure that was because Seto took the brunt of the punishments. He never really told me what Gozaburo did to him, but I would find out on my own."  
  
Yami sighed as he leaned on his elbows so as not to aggravate the cuts.  
  
"I'll clean those cuts when we get home," Mr. Moto said, and Yami nodded.  
  
"Where is my brother now?"  
  
Yami closed his eyes and turned his attention inward.  
  
*Where is Kaiba? Mokuba is asking about him*  
  
**He's still unconscious. I'm in his soul room with him. Are you okay, Yami? How bad are the injuries?** Yugi asked, concern flooding their link.  
  
*They're not too bad, aibou, don't worry. Your grandfather will take care of them*  
  
**Okay. Tell Mokuba that I'll stay with Kaiba**  
  
"Yugi says that Kaiba is unconscious in his soul room. Yugi will stay with him until he wakes up."  
  
Mokuba nodded but said nothing.  
  
"Where are we going?" Mr. Moto asked Joey.  
  
"To pick up Ryou and Tristan, and then back to Ryou's house. Gozaburo obviously knows where you live, gramps, so there's no use going back to the shop."  
  
Yami ignored the conversations around him, choosing instead to focus on the passing scenery. He felt bad for Kaiba and what he'd gone through as a child. He still remembered Kaiba's reaction after his confession in his soul room, the words meaning more to him now that he'd experienced Gozaburo's ministrations first hand.  
  
One particular thing kept replaying over and over in Yami's head:  
  
'He's capable of anything, Yami, absolutely anything. If you think I'm cold and ruthless, just keep in mind that he was my teacher. He's hundreds of times worse than I could ever be. Because of Mokuba, I have a part of my heart left untarnished. Gozaburo has no heart left.'  
  
He had thought that Kaiba had been exaggerating then, but didn't think so now. What he'd witnessed were the actions of a man who had lost his conscience long ago. If he hadn't experienced it for himself, Yami never would have believed it. He knew what Kaiba meant now and the thought filled him with fear.  
  
How were they going to defeat an opponent who was not afraid of anything?  
  
**~~**  
  
Well, I hope that wasn't too horribly bad. See, no evil cliffhanger this time. . . I'm being good. Next up: A spell goes wrong. Yugi and Kaiba have a talk. 


	8. In the Comfort of Others

Greetings!  
  
I'm on a fanfic writing roll, so please bear with me through the inconsistent updating. At least I'm updating more rather than less. I hope that no one minds.  
  
In case anyone's interested, I posted my contest fic (for the last contest) over the weekend. It's called Blink of an Eye. It's on ff.net somewhere. If you're interested in information on the new contest, go to my bio page for the link to it. It's actually a lot of fun to participate, and it'll give you a reason to write a new fic (like anyone needs a reason, right?). Come on, try it!  
  
One thing: During the last chapter, I gave a preview about a spell going wrong. Well, it seems that I was a bit ahead of myself. That preview actually applies to this chapter. Sorry!  
  
Reviews:  
  
Moonlight Shadow: Magic is fun, especially when you mess it up. I stink at writing fight scenes, which is why mine tend to be rather short. But don't worry, there'll be plenty more. Considering I'm only 7 chapters into the story, there's still plenty of time for more *hears the collective groans of all the readers*  
  
MillenniumDreamer: Thanks for the review. I hope the wait wasn't that long.  
  
Joey's baby: Glad to know the chapter didn't completely stink! Every time I write a chapter, I tell myself that I'm going to find all of the mistakes. I never do, which is rather odd. Oh, well. Thanks!  
  
Angel de la luz: Hablas Espanol? My grandmother's name was Luz (we called her Lucita), so your nick is pretty cool! Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
Adrienne et all: I'm still chuckling over your review to No Kinen Ni (^__^). It's a wonder you keep everyone in order over there. Those plushies can be rather vocal, can't they? Seto getting stuck in Joey's body? Now there's an idea. It'd be hilarious, except we'd have to get Joey a Millennium Item first. If Seto had to stay with Ryou and Bakura, Bakura would kill him. Here, so you all won't fight anymore *gives plushies 5 buckets of ice cream and takes posters from Krystal. Hangs them by computer* Now my life is complete. Speaking of posters, have you ever checked out the fanart that's out there? My goodness, some of those pictures are incredibly well done *drools and wishes she had drawing talent*  
  
Mittens no Hikari: Action-ness can be an official word for this fic from now on, how's that? I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Raiji Magwind: You're very kind. Thank you very much for all the compliments you've given me for this and my other stories! You sure know how to make a girl blush ^_^. Thanks for posting the link to my fics on the message board too. That's awesome. I'll e-mail you a more proper thank you as soon as I have some more free time!  
  
Katkid: I'm an obsessive compulsive writer ;o), so I tend to be very hard on myself. It irks me when I miss correcting things, but I guess as long as you all don't mind an occasional slip or two (or four), I shouldn't either. Gozaburo is truly psychotic. Have you ever seen the Noa episodes? The flashbacks Kaiba has of Gozaburo are pretty bad. Of course, the beating part isn't there. That's alluded to in the manga, but you know how it goes for fanfic writers. we take it and make it what we want. Oh, yes, more stuff is going to happen because they didn't get the book *rubs hands evilly*.  
  
Master Elora Dannan: Hey there! Thanks for the reply. . . I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Dee: Rescue mission successful, with lots more to be done. They're definitely in a predicament, but that's what makes the story fun.  
  
Mezu: Thank you very much!  
  
Crystal Hikari: Hmm. . . how are they getting out? Honestly, I don't know yet. It'll come to me, I hope! Thanks!  
  
Miss Lous: Don't worry, punishing Gozaburo is definitely on my list of things to do. He'll definitely get what he deserves.  
  
Ieyre: YAY! It's good to know the chapter didn't completely stink. Thanks!  
  
SerafinaMoon: Torture good? That should be a mantra, you know. It would certainly apply to me and what I write. Thanks!  
  
Mutou Yasu: Thanks for the reply! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. I sympathize with homework. I started school two weeks ago and have plenty of it to do myself. I tend to write instead of doing homework. Bad me.  
  
GN: Thanks! I'm glad Gozaburo is coming off as a true villain. He's supposed to be totally whacked out. I just love evil characters!  
  
Dragona 2007: Thank you very much!  
  
Hobbit13: Yugi's confession? It must be the lateness of the day, but I don't remember the confession. What was it? Thanks for the review!  
  
YumeTakato: ^__^ Owies is definitely a good way to use for that chapter. Glad you liked it!  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Now there's an interesting suggestion. . . If Yami banished Gozabaka's soul to the shadow realm and then made sure he ended up where he'd be in eternal pain, he'd be getting what he deserved right? *AmunRa goes through her story outline, trying to figure out what was planned for Gozabaka originally. Doesn't find it* Arg! I've lost my outline for the ending. Must redo. Thanks! You've gotten my mind spinning with that now. I'm so happy that you like Grampa Moto *hugs gramps tightly* he's so sweet. I don't understand why everyone else hates him.  
  
Nenya85: Jenniyah's Scanlations is an awesome place for manga translations. You have to be very patient because of the bandwidth restrictions, but its well worth it. Janime has a limited amount of translations, but they're very good too. Links to both sites are in my bio. I wholeheartedly agree with you about Kaiba. That's what makes his character so complex, so loveable. He isn't a bastard just because he wants to be. Hell, he really isn't a bastard at all. He's loyal and loving, but very reserved and aloof. It'd take a lot of people to want to understand him, but it'd be well worth it. I'm so glad you're enjoying the stories!  
  
Okay, reviews done, now on to the good stuff. Enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 8: In the Comfort of Others  
  
Yugi sat on the floor of Kaiba's soul room, his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs. He was still trembling slightly from the emotions that had come crashing down to him from Kaiba. Yugi had never felt that sort of fear before. It had been so raw and almost childlike in its intensity. It was as if Kaiba had momentarily forgotten where he was and had thought he was a child again. It broke Yugi's heart to think that Kaiba had to grow up in an environment that generated that kind of fear. Yugi had known heart ache at the loss of his parents, but before then had known nothing but love and devotion from them. His grandfather had given him that same kind of love, which was why he was so saddened at Kaiba's childhood experiences. He, too, had lost his parents, but instead of a loving grandfather, Kaiba and Mokuba had gotten Gozaburo Kaiba.  
  
Kaiba was still unconscious. He was lying on his back a few feet in front of Yugi. When Yugi had told Yami to take over the body, Yami had done so abruptly. Yugi wasn't sure if that was the reason for Kaiba's current state, or if it had been the pain Gozaburo had inflicted. Yugi was beginning to worry, because it had been a long while since Yami had taken control. Kaiba should have woken up by now.  
  
He shivered, remembering the white hot agony he'd felt when Kaiba had lost control of his block on their link. It had been intense, which was why he was worried about Kaiba. Yugi was worried about Yami as well, since Yami was the one in control of the body, the one dealing with the pain. Yami was blocking his emotions from Yugi, which prevented him from helping Yami deal with anything. Part of Yugi appreciated the concern, but another part resented Yami for doing it. After all, Yugi wanted to help. It was his body, after all. Yugi didn't want Yami to have to deal with everything by himself, but Yami hadn't given him much of a choice in the matter.  
  
Sighing, Yugi decided to do something about it.  
  
**Yami?**  
  
There was no response. He felt the block Yami had put up and was tempted to knock it down himself, but didn't want to upset Yami. Sighing again, he sent a wave of concern and worry through the link, hoping that Yami would feel some of it and feel guilty for shutting him out. After a few moments, there was a reply.  
  
*Yes, Yugi*  
  
With the opening of the link, emotions flooded Yugi's mind. Pain, weariness, and even fear filtered down the link, causing Yugi to stiffen at the added sensations.  
  
**How are you doing? What happened?**  
  
*Joey is driving us to Ryou's house, and we managed to get out of Kaiba's mansion with Mokuba and your grandfather*  
  
Yami was quiet for a moment, and it seemed to Yugi as if he were debating whether or not to ask something. Finally, Yami spoke.  
  
*How is Kaiba?*  
  
Yugi's eyes widened in surprise at the concern he felt from Yami.  
  
**He's still unconscious. I've been with him in his soul room ever since you took over, but he hasn't come around**  
  
*His soul is weary. It will probably take a while to be restored*  
  
** Yami, are you okay? Let me help you with this. It's my body too**  
  
Yami was quiet for a moment. *It is alright, Yugi. I will be fine*  
  
**You don't sound fine. Besides, what good is it for you to deal with this by yourself? Let me share in the pain. It'll diffuse it for you a bit so that you can function better**  
  
Yugi could feel Yami's indecision. At the same time, he could feel relief. The pain must really be bad if Yami wasn't going to argue with him about sharing it.  
  
*As much as I hate to admit it,* Yami finally said, *it would be wise for us to both share it equally. It will give me a chance to focus on our next step and it would give you an opportunity to use the magic of the puzzle to attempt to heal the injuries. Do you remember how I taught you to do that?*  
  
Yugi grinned sheepishly, even though Yami couldn't see him.  
  
**I think so. If I can't do it, I'll ask you again**  
  
*Very well. I am going to open the link fully now. I will let you know what is happening out here once we reach Ryou's house*  
  
**Okay. Take care of yourself and tell everyone else to do the same, okay?**  
  
*I will*  
  
Their link suddenly opened fully, and Yugi gasped at the intensity of it. Yami had been partially blocking him during their conversation, and the pain he'd felt then was nothing compared to the pain he felt now. He gasped and doubled over, clutching his legs tightly. It felt as if his entire back was covered in red, hot coals. Every now and then, a cooling sensation would override some of the burning, and Yugi figured that his grandfather or someone was putting balm on the cuts. The sensation didn't last very long, however, and the burning quickly returned. He felt useless. He felt as if he didn't dare move for fear of making the pain worse. If he felt this bad, tucked away in Kaiba's soul room, Yami, in the actual body, must feel ten times worse.  
  
"You should let me deal with it."  
  
Surprised at the soft voice, Yugi raised his head to see that Kaiba's face was turned towards him, his eyes open wide. He was still on the floor and made no attempt to sit up.  
  
"What?" Yugi asked, genuinely confused.  
  
"The body, the pain, the aftermath. . . all of it. I should deal with it"  
  
Yugi leaned against the nearest wall, finally convincing himself that he wouldn't harm his back if he did so. He was feeling the pain of his body, but his movements weren't going to add to the pain, only Yami's would.  
  
"Why?"  
  
Kaiba shrugged and looked away. "It's my fault. Gozaburo did it to me, not you. Besides, I'm used to it, and I can block out the pain. I doubt you or Yami can."  
  
Yugi studied Kaiba, noting that his body was tense even as it was supposedly at rest. His hands were clenched into fists, and his shoulders were taut with tension.  
  
"We can't block out the pain, but we can share it, and the puzzle can heal the damage if I cast the right spell."  
  
Kaiba turned and looked at him again.  
  
"Why would you share the pain?"  
  
Yugi shrugged. "Yami can't deal with it by himself. He needs to focus, and he can do that better by letting me take some of the emotional burden away. Besides, it's my body. Whatever is done to it will affect me sooner or later."  
  
Kaiba frowned as if he couldn't understand Yugi's explanation, but did not say anything more.  
  
"Did Gozaburo do that to you a lot when you were younger?"  
  
Kaiba's unwavering gaze pierced Yugi. He could tell that the question had an affect on Kaiba by the way his eyes darkened, but the taller teen gave no response. He continued to gaze at Yugi, his face calm and devoid of emotion. Finally, he looked away.  
  
"Can't you just read my mind and get what you want?"  
  
Yugi shook his head. "You told me not to."  
  
"You could if you wanted to, even without my consent, couldn't you?"  
  
Yugi nodded, but then realized that Kaiba couldn't see him. "Yes."  
  
"Why don't you?"  
  
"Our minds are our most sacred things. If I were to violate your mind in that manner, I would be no better than Gozaburo."  
  
Kaiba didn't say anything. He finally stood up and walked over to where Yugi was sitting. He sat down as well and leaned against the wall next to Yugi. Yugi glanced at him, but Kaiba refused to meet his gaze. He found it strangely comforting to have Kaiba sitting next to him. Their bodies were not touching, but Yugi could feel warmth emanating from Kaiba's body. It made him feel secure. After a few minutes of silence, Kaiba finally spoke.  
  
"At first, I wasn't sure why he was doing it," Kaiba said, his voice low.  
  
He wasn't looking at Yugi, just staring straight ahead. His tone conveyed his exhaustion and to Yugi, Kaiba sounded defeated. He never thought he'd see the day when Kaiba wasn't arrogant, self serving, and controlling, and it brought a chill to his spine.  
  
"My parents never showed me anything but love and tenderness. Mokuba and I were well cared for. When they died and we were placed at the orphanage, it opened up a whole new world for us. We came to know that in the eyes of the people running the place, we were unwanted and unimportant. I didn't want Mokuba to grow up believing that, so I did my best to explain to him why the other kids and the adults around us acted the way they did. Sometimes it helped, while other times only left him in tears wishing for mom and dad."  
  
Kaiba paused then. His head lowered further so that it was almost touching his knees. His hands, which had previously been on his lap, fell limply to his sides. He took a deep breath and then released it. Yugi couldn't help but wince at the sound. It was as if years of pain were being expelled in that exhalation alone.  
  
"When Gozaburo adopted us, he didn't treat us any differently than the adults at the orphanage had. He was aloof, detached, and was never around. I figured that as long as Mokuba had a quiet and safe place to live, we could put up with whatever Gozaburo did or did not do. For a while, it was the best thing to happen to us. I loved it at the mansion, because Gozaburo kept a lot of electronic equipment around from Kaiba Corp. One day, I went into his study and found an old computer that wasn't running properly. I started to mess with it until I made it work. When Gozaburo came home, I was terrified that he'd be furious. He wasn't. Instead, it was as if a prayer had been answered. That night, he looked at me as if he were finally seeing me."  
  
Kaiba shifted. He closed his eyes for a moment, organizing his thoughts. Yugi didn't know why he was being told all of this, but he did know that it was costing Kaiba a lot to tell it. He would honor the sacrifice and remain quiet until the entire story had been told.  
  
"I had always known that Gozaburo wanted an heir. He'd made no secret of telling me that when he adopted us. I was ten at the time, so he must have figured that I still had some time to go before he needed to start 'training' me to take over Kaiba Corp." Kaiba paused again and chuckled. "The night he found me in his study, he must have realized that he didn't have to wait.  
  
The training was fairly normal at first. He had me read the company's bylaws, operating procedures, things of that nature. He hired the best tutors to educate me and allowed me access to the best equipment so that I could sharpen my skills. It was grueling work, abusive to some, but it never went beyond me being up for days at a time learning things. Even though I didn't understand his obsession with preparing me or agree with his methods, I still found ways to justify them. After all, I was ten and Gozaburo was in charge or my life, as well as my brother's. If he was doing all of these things, there had to be a reason."  
  
Yugi shifted so that he was no longer leaning against the wall. Instead, he was now facing Kaiba, his feet to the wall. Kaiba still wouldn't look at him, but Yugi refused to look away.  
  
"The first time he beat me he did it the same way he did today. He said that I was too soft and needed to learn to hide my feelings better. All I really remember from that day was shock and pain. I didn't know what was going on, and I kept asking myself what I'd done wrong to deserve being hit. I asked him, but all he said was that I needed to be a man, not a child. As the beatings continued, I began to understand what he wanted from me. I became aloof, detached, and very quiet. I didn't cry out, I didn't scream, and most importantly, I didn't give him the satisfaction of a reaction. The beatings ended when he made me president of Kaiba Corp. A few years later, he died, and I thought I was rid of him for good. Now, it turns out that he's not dead."  
  
"What about Mokuba?" Yugi finally asked, unable to stay quiet much longer.  
  
Kaiba turned to look at him then, and Yugi found himself looking at a boy who looked much older than his sixteen years. Yugi had always wondered why Kaiba acted the way he did, why he was so alone all of the time. While he still didn't have his answer, he was a little closer in getting it.  
  
"Gozaburo never touched Mokuba. In fact, Gozaburo never really had anything to do with Mokuba. He adopted both of us because I wouldn't leave the orphanage without my brother, but after that, Mokuba was never really important to him."  
  
"Does Mokuba know about what happened?"  
  
Kaiba smiled sadly and nodded. "Mokuba's a smart kid. I tried to hide it at first, but the nightmares kind of gave it away. Mokuba would always be there when I woke up screaming, and I knew that he knew what happened. I never told him and he never told me how he found out. It was enough to know that we didn't have that secret between us."  
  
Yugi nodded, accepting the explanation. Everything he'd heard was heartbreaking. Kaiba hadn't asked to be brought into that situation. He'd been a child, unable to defend himself. Hatred for Gozaburo Kaiba bubbled in the depths of his stomach, while sorrow for Kaiba lingered much closer to the surface.  
  
"Why are you crying?"  
  
The question caught Yugi off guard and he realized that he had tears running down his cheeks.  
  
Yugi opened his mouth to reply, but a sob was the only thing that came out.  
  
"I don't want your pity," Kaiba said, his voice icy. He shook his head as if chastising himself for what he'd just said and began to get off the floor, but Yugi's arm on his leg stopped him.  
  
"It isn't pity, Kaiba. I feel for your situation and your loss. I feel for you, that's all."  
  
Kaiba glared at the hand on his leg, before he returned his gaze to Yugi. His face was a mask of disbelief and Yugi didn't know what he could do to make Kaiba understand.  
  
"Tap into the link we share, Kaiba and you'll see that I don't feel pity for you. I'm just sad for you and Mokuba."  
  
Kaiba seemed to think it over for a moment, before he looked away and seemed to concentrate on something only he could see. After a few moments, Yugi saw his eyes widen.  
  
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Yugi asked, deciding to take advantage of the situation and maybe get Kaiba to talk a little more.  
  
Kaiba's face flushed slightly. "Why should I have had to? I didn't know you and you didn't know me. I certainly wasn't about to tell you my life story."  
  
"Why did you tell me now?"  
  
At that question, Kaiba sighed. "You're now involved in my life. Gozaburo just put you in danger, and I figured that I owed you an explanation. It wasn't easy, nor does it fill me with joy to know that you're now aware of something not even Mokuba knows clearly. I believe in readiness, and for this situation, you had to know about my history with Gozaburo, if only to understand our reactions to each other."  
  
Although Kaiba was speaking clearly and with assurance, Yugi could see the sadness in his eyes. Kaiba wanted to be strong, to forget the horrors of his past, but today's incident with Gozaburo had made it absolutely clear that what he'd thought he'd buried wasn't too buried after all. He was afraid of his greatest weakness, the childhood he'd lost, and Yugi wanted nothing more than to help him deal with the fear.  
  
Without thinking, Yugi got on his knees and wrapped his arms around Kaiba. The elder teen immediately tensed at the contact and tried to pull away, but Yugi would not let him. Instead, Yugi tightened his arms around Kaiba's neck and refused to let him go.  
  
"You don't have to deal with this alone anymore, Kaiba," Yugi stated. "We're in this together now, don't forget that. We'll defeat Gozaburo and get your body back, you'll see. But you have to let us help you. Let us in, let us share in your pain and between the three of us, we'll overcome it."  
  
Yugi remained that way for a long while. He was about to pull away, feeling slightly frightened that Kaiba was going to throw him across the room for violating his personal space, when he felt Kaiba's arms tentatively wrap around his waist. Yugi smiled.  
  
"Seeking comfort won't destroy you, Kaiba, it'll make you stronger."  
  
With that, Kaiba's arms tightened around Yugi, and he pulled the smaller teen close to him. Kaiba rested his chin on top of Yugi's head and sighed. Yugi tightened his own arms, wanting to give comfort through the embrace. A short while later, he felt a drop hit his cheek. Yugi closed his eyes and let himself cry, his own tears mingling with the ones Kaiba had finally allowed himself to shed.  
  
**~~**  
  
"Yami, are you okay?"  
  
Yami nodded slightly. He was lying on his stomach on Ryou's bed, shirtless. He was trying to keep his movements to a minimum so as no to aggravate the injuries on his back. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this powerless. As a spirit, he didn't feel pain. In Yugi's body, however, he experienced it as if it were his own. Yami was glad that it was him in control of the body and not Yugi. He had a feeling that it would be much worse for the young teenager.  
  
A part of him wanted Kaiba to take control of the body and suffer the injuries that had been inflicted on him, but then Yugi's voice of reason would pop into his head, chastising him for his thoughts. It wasn't really Yugi speaking to him. It was just that lately, his conscience had taken on Yugi's personality. Yami would have laughed at that, if he weren't already so tired and in pain.  
  
Mr. Moto had just finished cleaning, putting ointment on, and bandaging the cuts on his back. Through the process, Yami had felt Yugi's grandfather's emotions radiating from him. He didn't have to be a mind reader to know that the older man was enraged and would happily give Gozaburo a piece of his mind if he were around. Beyond the bravado and the anger, though, the elder Moto was very worried.  
  
"I am fine, Mr. Moto," Yami said, "the puzzle will heal the injuries eventually".  
  
Mr. Moto didn't say a word. Instead, he kneeled on the ground beside the bed so that they were both face to face. He reached up and brushed Yami's bangs away from his face, before tenderly patting him on the cheek.  
  
"You are not ruling a nation anymore, Yami. You don't have to be strong for Yugi or the rest of us. Saying that you're in pain is okay," Mr. Moto said softly as he ran his hand up and down Yami's arm in a measure of comfort. "Besides, if you tell me where or how bad it hurts, I can help you."  
  
Yami took a deep breath and released it, holding Mr. Moto's gaze. He didn't know how to just be himself. He didn't remember being pharaoh, but he did remember that he had to be strong, brave, and always in control because that was his place. It was what he'd been born to do. The calming motions of Mr. Moto's hands, combined with the medication from whatever Mr. Moto had put on the cuts, were lulling him slightly.  
  
"I don't know how to not be what I am. I always have to be in control," he said before he could stop himself.  
  
Mr. Moto only smiled. "I understand. Just remember that we're the only ones in this room. If you slip this once, I promise not to tell anyone, not even Yugi."  
  
Yami gave the elder man a small smile in return. "Very well. I hurt everywhere. I know that the injuries were to my back, but every time I move in the the slightest, I feel as if my whole body is covered in fire. Yugi is sharing the pain and should be casting a healing spell, but it's not working yet."  
  
Mr. Moto nodded and got up. Yami heard him rummaging around, before he returned with a plastic bottle and a glass of water.  
  
"My doctor prescribes these for my arthritis. They're pretty strong painkillers. I shouldn't be giving you something meant for me, but I think these will help."  
  
Mr. Moto held out his hand to reveal two little brown pills. Yami nodded his consent, and Mr. Moto helped him sit up long enough to swallow the pills. Yami tried not to wince, but wasn't entirely successful.  
  
"What did I tell you? Go ahead, groan if you want to. I won't say a word."  
  
Yami couldn't help but chuckle at Mr. Moto's antics. He was making jokes, but at the same time, was encouraging him to allow himself to be taken care of. Yami had to admit that it was a strange feeling, but one that he enjoyed.  
  
As he lay down again, Yami did groan. "I'm getting sleepy."  
  
"That's normal. The pills do contain some sleeping medication, so you'll probably sleep for a few hours. Don't worry; I'll be here when you wake up."  
  
Yami nodded again and closed his eyes. Mr. Moto resumed rubbing his arm and he let himself give in to the weariness that had consumed him ever since getting into Kaiba's car. He knew that Yugi and Kaiba were safe. Yugi had left his link open and Yami knew what had transpired between them. He felt a bit strange, almost envious, that Yugi and Kaiba were as close as they were at the moment, but he wasn't about to barge in on them. Instead, he chose to simply sleep. To the soothing rhythm of Mr. Moto's hands, Yami drifted off to dreamland.  
  
**~~**  
  
Joey paced back and forth in front of the couch, not paying attention to the annoyed looks he was getting from the others in the room. He wanted to know what had happened in Kaiba's den. Yami's injuries looked horrible, and Joey wanted to know what that psycho Gozaburo had done to his friend.  
  
When they had gotten back to the house, Mr. Moto had ushered Yami upstairs and had told the rest of them to remain in the living room. Apparently, the elder man had something in mind to help heal the injuries. Joey had wanted to argue, but one look at Mr. Moto's determined face had told him not to. Instead, he had decided to pace.  
  
"Can someone tell me what's going on? Where's my brother?"  
  
Joey stopped pacing and faced Mokuba Kaiba, who was sitting on the smaller of the two couches, his knees drawn up to his chest. At that moment, he looked every bit the eleven year old that he was.  
  
"We're actually not sure about what happened, Mokuba," Ryou answered. "We had absolutely no idea about any of this, until this afternoon when Yugi told us. Apparently, Gozaburo Kaiba hid his consciousness in a computer, and then transferred it into your brother's body. When Kaiba wouldn't stop fighting Gozaburo for control of his body, Gozaburo decided to cast him out. Yugi happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and Kaiba's soul got thrown into the puzzle, where it remains now."  
  
Mokuba turned his big eyes to Ryou. "So Seto's in the puzzle with Yami now?"  
  
"Yeah, kid, that's where he is. Though I think that since Yami is in control of the body right now, Kaiba's in the puzzle with Yugi."  
  
"How does that work?"  
  
Joey chuckled humorlessly and plopped down on the couch next to Mokuba. "We have no clue. You'll have to ask Yami or Yugi about that."  
  
At that moment, Mr. Moto came in to the living room. As soon as Joey saw his face, he knew that whatever was wrong with Yami was serious.  
  
"How is he?" Tristan asked.  
  
Mr. Moto shook his head. "If it were normal circumstances, I would have taken him to the hospital right away. As it stands now, he's in pain, but he says the puzzle will heal the injuries. For now, I gave him some medication and he's asleep. He'll rest for a few hours. Let's hope that by then, the puzzle will have done something."  
  
"So now what do we do, gramps?" Joey asked. He was tired of sitting around doing nothing.  
  
"Now we wait. We can't do anything until Yami is healthy again and we can talk to all three of them. Only they know what we need to do next."  
  
Joey sighed. As much as he hated it, he knew that Mr. Moto was right. They had no choice but to wait. He looked up at the assembled guests and smiled slightly.  
  
"Does anyone want to duel?"  
  
**~~**  
  
YAY! One more chapter finished. There wasn't much action in this one and more importantly, there were no cliffhangers!! All of which goes to show that I'm not entirely evil.  
  
Next up: A spell goes wrong. Gozaburo figures out his next step. 


	9. Misguided Magic

Greetings!  
  
I'm very, very sorry for the delay in posting this. Life has been hectic, and I haven't had any free time to write lately. That'll probably explain why this chapter isn't as good as usual, but I hope that it's not too bad either.  
  
Thank you to all who reviewed! You're wonderful and I'm always happy to hear from you all.  
  
Note: There is a small dueling scene in this chapter. I have never dueled outside of the video game (Worldwide Edition) so I have no idea how you'd do it if you were doing it in person. If my details are wrong, or I've gotten information about the game wrong, please forgive me. One thing I did change was the life point count. Here, they start with 4000, not 8000 like you would in the video game or in real life.  
  
Now I'll shut up and post the chapter, so I can get some sleep. Enjoy!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 9: Misguided Magic  
  
The Scotch went down hard, burning his throat as he swallowed. He immediately felt lightheaded and nauseous. He clutched at his stomach and dropped onto the nearest chair, throwing the now empty glass against the wall in frustration at his new body's weakness. He blinked rapidly, clearing his eyes of the tears that had sprung up from the sting of the liquor.  
  
In his day, Gozaburo had been a seasoned drinker. Alcohol had been the only thing that had made his days worth living, and he'd had no problem taking pleasure in a good drink at the end of the day, especially during stressful times. It was no surprise to him that Seto had absolutely no tolerance for alcohol, as his body's reactions showed. Liquor numbed the senses, and Gozaburo could see how Seto would want to stay away from anything that had that effect. Even as a child, Seto had been very conscious about keeping as much control as he could, and alcohol would be detrimental to that.  
  
Gozaburo cursed the body he was in, because its weakness would not allow him to numb away his disgust at what had just occurred. The one shot he'd just had was already making him dizzy, but he knew that if he waited long enough, he would get over it. He'd been a heavy drinker while alive, which had contributed to his death. Now, however, he was in a new, young, body. He doubted that a little alcohol would seriously hurt him now. With enough time, he could easily overcome Seto's inability to handle alcohol. After all, the body would eventually grow accustomed to its new master.  
  
Retrieving another glass from the mini bar next to the desk, Gozaburo poured himself another shot of Scotch. He sniffed it gently without taking a drink. It was still too soon, and he didn't want to get sick. He looked around the rest of his office, and his eyes landed on the poker he'd used on Seto. He had been surprised to see that his lessons were still prominent in Seto's mind. Gozaburo had thought that he'd no longer be able to control the brat with violence, because so much time had passed since he'd disciplined the stubborn child. From what he'd seen at Kaiba Corp., Seto had made the company his own, destroying everything Gozaburo had built. He'd become his own man, even though he was still only sixteen years old. Underneath all the bluster and bravado that went along with running a successful company, however, Seto was still just an orphan, and Gozaburo still knew just how to manipulate him. The beating had been a test, one which Seto had passed admirably. Even in someone else's body, Seto still reacted to the same kind of violence. Gozaburo smiled; he would have to use that tactic again.  
  
The other boy would be a problem, the one who wielded magic similar to the magic he'd used to cast Seto's soul from his body. Ancient Egyptian magic was difficult to master, and not many people knew or believed in its existence. That fact that the boy did, and wanted the book of spells, made the hair on the back of Gozaburo's neck rise in weariness. The magic the boy had used to protect the body he and Seto inhabited had been powerful, and Gozaburo wanted to see more of what the boy could do. There had to be a way to posses that magic.  
  
Then there was the other boy, the one who had talked to him at school, the one he'd taken home that day after the incident in the park. He had to be the original owner of the body. He was more naïve, innocent, and could be easily manipulated. He was more than likely fairly young, which would work in his favor. If need be, Gozaburo was willing to 'train' him as he'd 'trained' Seto. How three souls inhabited the one body was something Gozaburo didn't understand, and it plagued him.  
  
"Then again. . ." he trailed off as he got off the chair and went to the spot where he'd hidden the book of spells.  
  
He leafed through it carefully, trying to find a picture he'd seen in passing when he'd first gotten the book. Upon finding it, he placed the book on his desk.  
  
"The Millennium Puzzle," he said, tracing the outline of the picture.  
  
It was the same one that the boy wore around his neck. That could be the reason why three souls could occupy that body. Gozaburo quickly skimmed the information listed about the Millennium Items in general and the puzzle in particular. It didn't say anything about the puzzle being a resting place for souls, but it did mention something about the powers it possessed, and the spirit that resided inside it. If Gozaburo came to possess the puzzle, he could harness its powers. He had to tame the spirit that inhabited it and bend it to his will first, but that could be arranged.  
  
"Pardon me, Mr. Kaiba, but I have the security tape you wanted."  
  
Gozaburo turned to see a security guard standing by the door, waiting to be allowed inside. Gozaburo motioned for the man to enter and he did, handing Gozaburo the tape.  
  
"Very well. I expect my car, and my brother, to be found as soon as possible, along with the boy that took them."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
Gozaburo dismissed the man, and put the tape into the VCR next to the computer. The picture came up, and Gozaburo watched as the spirit of the puzzle materialized in the garage. Beside one of the cars, a blond kid, Mokuba, and the old man waited. They all got into the car and drove out of the garage. Gozaburo had already known that much from his guard's report, but he had wanted to see for himself. After the incident, he'd immediately called the police and had reported his car stolen, so that if they came upon it before he did, they'd arrest the stupid kid who'd dared take it. He'd also told the police that his dear brother had been taken along with the car, which had made the officer he'd talked to that much more eager to find the car. He could care less about Mokuba, but Seto would care, and he still had to keep up appearances.  
  
The blond kid that was driving the car was familiar. Gozaburo was fairly sure that he went to the same school Seto attended. All he needed now was the boy's address and he'd know where they had gone.  
  
Turning of the VCR, Gozaburo turned to the computer. He quickly gained access to Domino High School's records and began to browse the student files. He doubted Seto had any friends, but Yugi Moto apparently did. All Gozaburo had to do was find who they were, and he would know where they could be hiding. He downed the Scotch he'd poured earlier, wincing only slightly as the liquor went down his throat. Yes, Seto's body could definitely get used to the comforts of a good Scotch.  
  
**~~**  
  
Yami's eyes opened slowly. He was slightly disoriented and couldn't remember where he was. He felt warm and cozy, which was nice. After a little while, he realized that he was on a bed, wrapped up in several blankets. He felt a weight on his shoulder, and moved his head slightly to see a wrinkled hand resting on it. He looked further and saw that Mr. Moto had fallen asleep sitting on the floor, his head on the bed, and his arm on top of Yami's arm. Yami looked at the room and found that he didn't recognize it.  
  
It took a few minutes for his mind to recall what had happened at the Kaiba mansion and that they were now at Ryou's house. With the recollection came the pain, though it wasn't as severe as it had been. Yami shifted slightly to test the theory and found that the pain had lessened to a slightly uncomfortable ache, instead of the agony it had been before. He smiled. Yugi must have successfully cast the healing spell.  
  
The mention of Yugi made him think of his aibou, and Yami quickly willed himself back into his soul room. He opened the door and found that the door to Yugi's room was also open. He walked in and found Yugi sleeping on his bed under a mound of blankets. Yami smiled. The drug that had knocked him out must have done the same to Yugi, along with the exhaustion that came from casting any spell. Yami decided not to bother Yugi and go back to the body, when he caught sight of something at the foot of Yugi's bed. Yami stepped closer to it and realized that it was Kaiba, sitting on the floor, his body curled in on itself so that his head rested on his knees. He was also asleep, and Yami wondered why he hadn't gone back to his soul room to sleep.  
  
Shrugging, Yami walked over to his rival. Kaiba's position looked very uncomfortable for someone of his height. His long legs were tucked against his chest while his arms hung limply at his side. Kaiba's long hair covered his face, which left it hidden behind shadows.  
  
In an uncharacteristic show of sympathy for the teen, Yami bent down, lifted Kaiba and put him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He grunted at the added weight and called upon some of his magic to lessen the burden. His height was a disadvantage, as Kaiba's feet nearly dragged on the floor. Yami stumbled once, and he thought that Kaiba would wake up, but he didn't. His original plan was to take Kaiba back to his soul room, but Yami decided against it. He wasn't going to make it with Kaiba over his shoulder, so instead, he lay Kaiba down on the bed beside Yugi. He took the covers off of Yugi and spread them over both of them.  
  
Yugi looked tired, his face slightly pale. He always managed to look peaceful in sleep, and today was no exception. Kaiba, on the other hand, looked as if he were ready to fight someone. His body was tense, his arms taut at his sides. His face looked pale and shadowed, lines showing where the muscles were not relaxed.  
  
Yami sighed. How in the hell were all three of them supposed to survive in the puzzle? Kaiba didn't belong here. The more reclusive teen was going to throw the harmony that he and Yugi had come to enjoy off kilter, and Yami couldn't help but feel anger at that. The puzzle was supposed to be his home, his sanctuary. How was he going to share it with the one person he didn't want to have anything to do with?  
  
He shook his head and quickly left the room, before he woke up either one of them. He wasn't heatless, because he did feel for Kaiba and what he'd gone through at the hands of Gozaburo Kaiba. That didn't mean that he had to be happy with Kaiba invading his personal space. Yami slammed the door to his soul room closed and willed himself back into the body. He was about to open his eyes when a soft voice caught his attention.  
  
"Sleep, my child, sleep. Leave your worries to Nut, who rules the night. Worry not, for I am here to protect you. Sleep in peace, until Ra rises again."  
  
Yami's breath caught in his throat at the sound of the melody, sung in his native language. He had not heard the intricate sounds of his tongue for millennia, and hearing them now brought tears to his eyes. He opened them to see Solomon Moto starting at him, concern and worry on his face.  
  
"Are you okay, Yami? Is the pain worse?"  
  
Yami shook his head, unable to form words. He had a sudden memory of his father singing the very same words to him when he was a child. He could see his father's face, hear the sweet sound of his voice, and wanted nothing more than to see his home again.  
  
"Where did you hear that?" Yami finally managed to choke out.  
  
Mr. Moto smiled. "It's an Ancient Egyptian lullaby. I read it in a tomb once. The son of a priest had been buried in the tomb, and his father had wanted the child to always have the lullaby to protect him, so he'd had it inscribed on the lid of the child's coffin."  
  
Yami said nothing for a moment, weighing how much he should tell the older man. Yami didn't share the few memories of his past he had with anyone besides Yugi, but he felt as if he wanted to tell Mr. Moto about his father.  
  
"My father used to sing that to me when I was a child," he finally explained. "I was surprised to hear you sign it, especially in its original language."  
  
Mr. Moto's eyes became sad. "I'm sorry to have reminded you of something as painful as that, Yami," he said, and reached out to wipe the tears Yami hadn't realized had spilled down his cheeks.  
  
"Thank you, Mr. Moto. Your song gave me a memory of my past, and I am grateful."  
  
Mr. Moto smiled. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Better. Yugi managed to cast the healing spell and the injuries are healing. I'd like to get up and talk to everyone."  
  
"How is Yugi?"  
  
Yami smiled slightly. "He is fine. He is currently asleep in his soul room. So is Kaiba. The confrontation seems to have taken it out of both of them."  
  
Yami slowly got up, grateful when Mr. Moto wrapped an arm around him to help him up. Once he was upright, he realized that his body felt better than it had earlier. Moving was no longer sheer agony for him. He made his way out of the room with Mr. Moto helping him, and stopped when he heard voices from downstairs.  
  
"I attack with Panther Warrior."  
  
There was silence, until a child's laugh drifted up to them. "My face down card is the Man Eating Bug, so your Panther Warrior gets sent to the graveyard."  
  
Joey growled, and Yami smiled.  
  
"Hey, that's not in your brother's deck."  
  
Mokuba laughed again. "Who said I was playing with my brother's deck?"  
  
"The fact that you had a Blue Eyes White Dragon earlier, for one," Joey insisted.  
  
"I'm still not sure how Joey got rid of it," Ryou added.  
  
"I have my own deck too, you know, it's just not as good as my brother's. I borrowed a couple of his cards."  
  
Yami was interested now. Then again, Joey was playing against Mokuba. Even with the Blue Eyes, Mokuba didn't have his brother's talent and didn't have a shot at beating Joey.  
  
"How I got rid of the dragon is my secret, now be quiet and let us finish. It's your turn, Mokuba."  
  
"Have they been doing this for a while?" Yami asked Mr. Moto, who chuckled.  
  
"Joey wanted to kill time. Ryou wouldn't duel him, even though Bakura wanted to, so he settled for dueling Mokuba."  
  
"Okay, I summon Hitotsu-me Giant in defense mode, and set a card face down," Mokuba said. "End of my turn."  
  
Yami and Mr. Moto got to the bottom of the stairs and stood watching the pair duel.  
  
"I summon Axe Raider in attack mode."  
  
Joey didn't get a chance to do anything more. Mokuba reached down and flipped over his trap card.  
  
"Trap Hole. Since your monster's attack points are higher than 1000, it automatically goes to the graveyard."  
  
"Sneaky little kid, isn't he?" Joey muttered to no one in particular. "Fine, I'll set one card face down and end my turn."  
  
Mokuba hooted in pleasure as he drew his next card. "You're so fun, Joey. No wonder Seto loves to pick on you."  
  
"Hey, kid, let's leave your brother out of this, okay? We were having a good time."  
  
Ryou laughed, as did the rest of them. Yami smiled. It was good to see them relax, even if it was only for a little while.  
  
"My turn. I summon Battle Ox in attack mode, and switch Hitotsu-me Giant into Attack mode as well. Battle Ox, attack!"  
  
Joey chuckled. "Not so fast, kid. I play Skull Dice. Anyone got a dice?"  
  
"Hold on," Ryou said. He got up and rummaged through the drawers of an old desk, until he found one. "Here."  
  
"Thanks, Ryou."  
  
Joey rolled the dice, which landed on a six. "Yeah! Your monster's attack points get reduced by 600!"  
  
After Mokuba's turn, Joey, who had no monsters on the field, had suffered a 2300 life point damage from both monsters' attack.  
  
"Nice going kid!" Bakura, who had appeared outside of the ring, said. "The idiot still doesn't know how to play."  
  
"No one asked you, Bakura," Joey retorted. "Whew! Thank goodness I still had all of my 4000 life points. Now it's my turn," Joey said and drew a card. "Okay, Mokuba, this is it. I play Dark Hole, which destroys both of your monsters."  
  
Mokuba grimaced.  
  
"And I also play Monster Reborn to resurrect your Blue Eyes White Dragon."  
  
Mokuba handed over his brother's card, and Joey placed it on the field in attack mode. "Now, I attack your life points directly."  
  
The 3000 attack point damage took out the rest of Mokuba's life points, which left Joey grinning.  
  
"Like taking candy from a baby, eh, Joey?"  
  
Joey turned and glared at Bakura, who glared right back.  
  
"Maybe you'd like to duel me. Then again, I wouldn't be as easy to beat."  
  
"You held your own pretty well, Mokuba," Ryou told the younger Kaiba brother, ignoring the bantering of the other two. "You're getting better."  
  
"Yeah. That was a good game, Joey."  
  
"Yes it was."  
  
Yami stood where he was, wishing that they could all stay like that, safe and happy for ever. He knew that it was not to be, though. They had things they had to do, and it more than likely wouldn't all be fun and games.  
  
**~~**  
  
Seto Kaiba slowly rejoined the land of the awake.  
  
He felt warm, cozy, and comfortable. He was lying on something soft and assumed that he'd fallen asleep on his bed. Either that or someone had found him asleep somewhere and had brought him to his bed. He shifted, but found that something was resting on his right side. He smiled. That explained why he felt so comfortable. Mokuba sometimes crawled into bed with him in the middle of the night. He said that it helped him sleep, and Kaiba hated to admit that it had the same effect on him too.  
  
Without opening his eyes or shifting further, Kaiba searched for the head he knew he'd find resting on his arm. When he found it, he gently stoked the soft hair. He frowned, wondering when Mokuba had gotten a hair cut. The hair seemed too short to Kaiba and he couldn't remember Mokuba telling him about getting it cut.  
  
He stretched, and then opened his eyes. He didn't recognize the room he was in. It wasn't his room, of that he was sure. At that moment, the events of the last few days came crashing down on him. He was definitely not in his house. Hell, he wasn't even in his own body. Kaiba looked down to where his hand still rested on someone's head and was shocked to find not black hair, but black hair tipped with red. Instinctively, he jerked his hand away.  
  
'Yugi? How did I end up in bed with Yugi?'  
  
Kaiba's movements had jarred Yugi, and he began to stir. He groaned slightly and snuggled into the arm. Once he woke up and realized where his head was resting, he jerked away from Kaiba. He looked around, his eyes wide, before turning and giving Kaiba a sheepish smile. He noticed then that Yugi's cheeks were tinged with pink as he stared.  
  
"Sorry. I thought. . . never mind what I thought. How'd you end up here?" Yugi asked.  
  
"I don't know. I don't even remember falling asleep."  
  
Yugi shrugged and scooted over to the end of the bed. He got out of bed and sat on the chair by the desk. "It's okay. I think we both needed to sleep."  
  
"How are you feeling?" Kaiba asked.  
  
Yugi was thoughtful for a moment. "I'm feeling better. The spell must have worked."  
  
Kaiba nodded.  
  
"I see that you two are awake now."  
  
Kaiba turned to the door and found Yami standing there, an amused expression on his face. His arms were crossed and he raised an eyebrow when he saw that Kaiba was still on the bed.  
  
"Did you come in here before?" Yugi asked.  
  
Yami nodded. "Kaiba fell asleep curled up on the floor. I put him in your bed. I trust he behaved himself?"  
  
Yugi's cheeks turned pink again, and Kaiba wondered why. He decided to file that and ask about it later. Yami had actually done something nice for him? Should he expect the end of the world any time now? It was strange, though. Kaiba would have figured that Yami would want him as far away from Yugi as possible. As if reading his mind, Yami turned to Kaiba.  
  
"You need to lose some weight, Kaiba. Even with the puzzle's powers, I couldn't carry you to your soul room."  
  
"You're just not used to having to deal with someone almost twice your height," Kaiba replied before he could stop himself.  
  
Yami turned to him, glared, and then ignored him He walked fully into the room and addressed Yugi.  
  
"The healing spell is working. The puzzle is slowly healing your body."  
  
"Yeah, I can tell. There's not as much pain anymore. So what do we do now?"  
  
Yami leaned against Yugi's desk. "We should talk to the others and see if they have any other ideas about how to get the book back."  
  
Yami finally turned to Kaiba. He fingered something hanging on his chest, and it wasn't until Yami had walked a few steps closer to the bed that Kaiba realized Yami was wearing his locket.  
  
"How'd you get that?" Kaiba asked and held his hand out for Yami to give him the locket.  
  
Yami didn't hand over the locket. Instead, he pointed to Kaiba's chest. Kaiba looked down and was surprised to see that the locket was already hanging from his own chest, along with the Millennium Puzzle. He felt a wave of relief that Yami had gotten his locket. It wasn't just sentimental; although the picture of Mokuba he carried in the locket was one of very few he had of when Mokuba was little. The card behind the locket controlled all of Kaiba Corp.'s security, and he was glad that Gozaburo hadn't figured that out while he'd had the locket. Kaiba dropped the locket and fingered the golden puzzle. He hadn't noticed it hanging around his chest earlier, though. When had it gotten there?  
  
"It's a property of the puzzle," Yugi explained before Kaiba could inquire. "Whatever my body wears appears on the spirits in the puzzle. I'm not sure why your clothing hasn't been affected yet."  
  
Kaiba chuckled. "That's a good thing, because I do not want to be wearing what you two have on."  
  
Yami frowned. "Are you insulting Yugi's fashion sense?"  
  
Kaiba was sure he heard a hint of anger and defensiveness in Yami's tone.  
  
"No, that type of clothing is just not my style."  
  
"You'd rather be smothered in those coats you keep wearing, right? How you keep from dehydrating is beyond me."  
  
Kaiba got up from the bed, feeling a bit awkward arguing from that position.  
  
"But at least the coats cover me, unlike those sleeveless leather shirts you wear under your uniform."  
  
"Guys."  
  
Kaiba heard Yugi, but Yami must not have, because he continued speaking.  
  
"It's called being comfortable, Kaiba. I'm Egyptian, we wear cool clothing. "  
  
"The last I heard, Ancient Egyptians did not wear leather and buckles."  
  
"Guys, that's enough," Yugi finally made himself known by getting up and standing in between them. "What we wear or don't wear is not important here. We have to figure out what to do next."  
  
Kaiba, who was still glaring at Yami, nodded. He wasn't going to look away first. He was going to let Yami look away first. It was a matter of pride.  
  
"Hello? Is anyone paying attention to me?"  
  
Yami finally turned to Yugi, and Kaiba sighed in relief. Getting into it with Yami was never a good thing, and he didn't think he had the strength to do it now.  
  
"Yes, Yugi, you are right, we have to figure out what to do. You two should probably come out and talk to everyone else with me."  
  
"Okay. Let's go."  
  
Before Kaiba knew what was happening, he was standing in someone's living room. He looked around and caught sight of his little brother at about the same time Mokuba saw him. Mokuba threw himself at Kaiba, only to go through him completely. Mokuba stumbled, but didn't fall. He turned around, tears in his eyes.  
  
"Seto, why can't I touch you?"  
  
Kaiba sighed, the sight of his brother's tears always made him feel guilty.  
  
"He's a spirit right now, Mokuba," Yugi gently explained, "just like I am. Kaiba can't be solid unless he has control of my body, like he did when he got you and grandpa out of the pantry. Don't worry, we'll fix this situation and Kaiba will be back in his body pretty soon."  
  
Unconvinced, Mokuba looked from Yugi to Kaiba. Finally, he settled for sitting on the couch closest to where Kaiba was standing.  
  
"How are you doing, Yugi?"  
  
Kaiba turned to see that Mr. Moto had come to stand in front of his grandson, looking at him with a strange expression on his face. Like Mokuba, Mr. Moto attempted to touch Yugi, and shivered slightly when his hand went through his grandson's.  
  
"Sorry, I just had to see for myself."  
  
"It's okay, grandpa, I'm doing okay. It's weird, but it's okay."  
  
Kaiba chuckled at that. Weird was putting it mildly. He was still slightly embarrassed to have gotten up next to Yugi, but he shoved that to the back of his head. They'd have time for explanations and apologies later.  
  
"So what are we going to do?" Joey asked.  
  
Kaiba hadn't noticed Wheeler, and when he turned in the direction of the mutt's voice, he saw that Joey had just come in from the kitchen, a bowl of something that smelled like popcorn in his hands.  
  
"I have an idea," Yami said. "If you'd all take a seat, I'll explain."  
  
Kaiba stood where he was, deciding that as a spirit, he didn't have to obey. He noted with amusement that Yugi remained standing as well, but ended up standing next to him.  
  
Yami turned towards the two of them. "I used the shadow realm to transport myself from Kaiba's study to the garage. It was the only thing I could do, and in a way, it was an act of desperation. However, I believe that I can duplicate what I did to take me back to the Kaiba mansion to search for the book."  
  
Ryou frowned from his spot on the floor. "Did you use a spell to call upon the shadow realm like that?"  
  
Yami nodded. "Bakura probably knows how to do it as well as I do, but yes, it is a spell. You bend the shadow realm to your whim, allowing it to take you where you need to go?"  
  
'Bend the shadow realm?' Kaiba thought. 'Yami sounds like he's been watching Star Trek.'  
  
"Not to put a dent in your plan, Yami, but getting from my study to my garage is one thing. Getting from here, wherever here is, back to my house is another thing entirely," Kaiba commented.  
  
"My house is not very far from yours, Kaiba," Ryou stated. "I think Yami could do it."  
  
"What would we have to do?" Yugi wanted to know.  
  
"Nothing," Yami replied. "You two are not very aware of the spells at my disposal, so you would only be along for the ride. Once we get back to Kaiba's, you'd be able to help look for the book."  
  
"When can we do it?" Kaiba asked.  
  
Yami looked at him, his expression thoughtful. "We could go right now. It is still afternoon, and I doubt Gozaburo would still be in his study."  
  
Kaiba nodded. "He probably went back to Kaiba Corp. I have no doubt that he's already hit my walls in gaining access to the system and will try to get around them."  
  
"Shouldn't you try to recuperate first?" Mr. Moto asked.  
  
"With all due respect, Mr. Moto, we do not have much time to waste. The sooner we get the book of spells back, the sooner we can get Kaiba back in his body and be done with this situation."  
  
Kaiba felt a prickle of anger at Yami's statement, but let it rest. He didn't want to be stuck in Yugi's puzzle any longer than Yami wanted him to be stuck in it.  
  
"The healing spell is working, grandpa, and we're all fine. The puzzle will heal the remaining wounds very soon."  
  
Mr. Moto sighed, but nodded.  
  
"Very well, let me attempt it. Yugi, Kaiba, it would be wise if you both returned to the puzzle."  
  
Kaiba nodded and with a flash, he was back in his soul room, alone. He sat down on one of the chairs and put his head on his arms. He still couldn't believe this was all happening. The worst part about it all was that he was a bystander; he couldn't really do anything to help, because he was way out of his league. He hated not being in control, especially when it dealt with his rival.  
  
He raised his head when he heard Yami reciting something in a language he didn't understand. Some of the words sounded strangely familiar, but Kaiba couldn't completely recognize them. He shrugged and gave up. He wouldn't have to remember the spell anyway. Yami stopped speaking, and everything was silent. Kaiba looked around and saw that the walls of his soul room were wavering. He stood, but found that he couldn't keep his footing. Reaching out for the back of the chair to steady himself, Kaiba tried to walk to the door to get to Yugi, but found that he couldn't go anywhere. He was frozen to his spot.  
  
As the walls continued to waver, Kaiba heard something like water running coming from above him. When he tried to look up, he was slammed back onto the floor. The last thing he noticed was that his soul room was transparent, and all he could see beyond the walls was darkness.  
  
When sensation returned to his body, he felt cool marble below him. He was laying face down somewhere, but he couldn't remember marble being in his soul room. Startled, Kaiba tried to get up, only to find that he had a pounding headache. He groaned and lay his head back down.  
  
"You should not attempt to move, High Priest. You sustained quite an injury. I have sent for the healer for you."  
  
'Huh?' Kaiba thought. 'Who is that strange man talking to?'  
  
He felt hands take a hold of his shoulders, and he shrugged them off.  
  
"I didn't mean to do it, I promise! I didn't know he was here. He was supposed to be on a pilgrimage, not in the kitchens."  
  
The woman's high pitched voice grated on Kaiba's already pounding head, and he groaned again.  
  
"Hush, Mayet, can you not see that your voice bothers the priest?"  
  
Kaiba had had enough. Who the hell was this priest they were talking about? He got himself up to a sitting position and slowly raised his head. His eyes took in the surroundings, widening at the strange and unexpected site. He wouldn't have known that he was in a kitchen if the man had not said so; what he was seeing did not look like any kitchen he was aware of. Finally, he turned his head the other way and saw an older man and a very young woman standing a few feet away from him, almost as if they were afraid to touch him. She kept looking at him, while the older man was looking somewhere else.  
  
"What is happening here?"  
  
The woman's eyes went as wide as saucers at the new voice, and she immediately dropped to the ground in a position of submissiveness. The man did the same, but he did not seem as afraid as the woman. Kaiba immediately recognized the voice, and turned expecting to find his spiky haired rival, dressed in what he always wore. Instead, Kaiba found that his rival was dressed in pristine, white robes, with a crimson cape that matched his eyes wrapped around his shoulders. Golden jewels adorned most of his body, standing out against his tanned skin, and his eyes projected calmness and confidence in himself.  
  
"Pharaoh, I was not aware you had been called."  
  
'Pharaoh? What the hell is going on?'  
  
**~~**  
  
So, did anyone see that coming? *grins mischievously* For those of you who have wondered about the flashbacks I've had for both Seto and Yami, this is where I was going with them.  
  
Next up: Home Sweet Home. Yami gets to finally go home, but at what price? The manga finally influenced my writing, so let's blame that, shall we? ^__^ 


	10. Home Sweet Home

Greetings and welcome to another chapter of this here story! I know I left you all in a bad place last time, and I apologize for that. Hopefully this chapter will explain some more, though I doubt it will. Hell, I'm not even sure I know what I'm doing, so if I confuse anyone, please let me know. Don't get me wrong, I know where I want the story to go, it's the how to get there that's eluding me.  
  
I need your help! I'm writing a songfic for Chibizoo's fanfic contest, and I would really like to have a beta for it. The fic is told entirely from Kaiba's point of view, and is slightly Kaiba/Yugi. It's not a happy story, but if you're reading this, you probably know that none of my stories are. If you have absolutely no problem with either of those things and wouldn't mind helping me out, please email me: amunraprincess@yahoo.com I'll be forever grateful.  
  
Also, please read the note at the end of the chapter. There are some memories in this chapter and the credit for them is at the bottom.  
  
Reviews:  
  
Ginger Ninja: Thanks! I'm glad that you liked the twist. Now let's see if I can do anything with it.  
  
Dee: Why would you assume that something is going to go wrong next? (Maybe because you've been reading the story so far? ^_^) We'll have to wait and see.  
  
Kael Kalespel: Oh, wow. . . thank you very much! Your kind words made my day!  
  
Miss Lous: Yeah, I'm talking about the Egyptian Arc of the manga at Jennaiya's page. Have you read all of it? Janime has summaries for the newer chapters, and it just keeps getting better. I can't wait to see it in the anime. I just couldn't resist the allure of their past lives. . . so interesting. I'm glad you're enjoying what's going on. No, Gozaburo had nothing to do with it. This time, it really was a stupid mistake.  
  
Mittens no Hikari: Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying the fic!  
  
Ieyre: Thanks! Hopefully this update wasn't too long in coming.  
  
Moonlight Shadow: Jenniyah's page has translations and scans (scanlations) of most of the Battle City/Battle Ship and almost the entire Egyptian Memory World arc. There's a link to it on my bio page if you're interested in checking it out. I watched The Mummy and the sequel and loved both of them. They're not historically accurate (Imhotep was an architect, designer of the first pyramid, not a priest) but they were entertaining nonetheless. The scenes with the scarabs were freaky, though. Thanks for the review!  
  
Osiris: Welcome to another Kaiba fan! Thanks for the encouragement. I really appreciate it!  
  
Deranged black kitten of doom: Interesting name ^_^ Yes, there's definitely lots more to write, so I hope you keep enjoying the fic.  
  
Joeyz girl: I'm glad to hear that this is one of your faves *blushing*. Yup, Yami's spell definitely went wrong. They're really in Ancient Egypt, so it's not a flashback. More will be explained as the fic continues.  
  
Adrienne: Question: Did you want me to write a Malik/Serenity fic, or did I dream that up? I just remembered that the other day. You don't like Yugi/Seto? *sniffles*. I love Seto/Jou too, but have more of a soft spot for Yugi/Seto. Is this going to be a Yugi/Seto? I have no clue. I haven't thought that far ahead yet. You'd be surprised when you do get to the states. We don't get much anime over here, and what we do get is watered down. I download the Japanese episodes and watch those. Thanks for the rod *rubs hands in anticipation and ponders who she's going to control first*  
  
MillenniumDreamer: Yup, time travel is definitely fun. Thanks for the review!  
  
Starheart: Thank you very much ^__^!  
  
Solitaire and Xpyne: I'm so on the edge of whether to leap into yaoi or stay where I am. I read a lot of it but have never written it. I'm fascinated with the interaction between Yugi, Yami, and Seto, which is why I keep writing them. I'm glad that you like what I've written so far!  
  
Mutou Yasu: The manga is so entertaining, and so unlike anything else I've been exposed to in the US, which is why I'm so fascinated by it. I keep reading more and more of it. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Crystal Hikari: Thanks! I do like to keep things interesting.  
  
Sunrise: I'm glad you're enjoying the story! Be careful with that yami, though ^_^  
  
Callisto Firestarted: Wow! Thank you so much! It's always good to hear that the fic is being enjoyed.  
  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon: The spell was not deflected. . . it was more like it had the wrong effect. It will be explained in more detail in a future chapter (I'm not sure which one at this point, but soon!)  
  
Rogue: Was that good laughter or bad laughter? ^_^ I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Don't worry about it! It's always great to hear from you. Fireworks is putting it lightly if Gozabaka ever got a hold of the puzzle. Hmm. . . I'll ponder that further, it may have possibilities. They're definitely back in Ancient Egypt. Sorting it all out is going to be the fun part.  
  
Hobbit13: Yup, Yami screwed up. You're not brainless; I just skipped over Yugi actually doing the spell. I had Yami note that he'd done it, and I think Yugi mentioned it too. Sorry if it was a bit confusing.  
  
Happy: Yup, I got the message. It worked eventually. Thank you!  
  
Lightning Sage (Destiny): Thank you very much! I'm very happy that you liked the story!  
  
Write Already/Write More Already: That was just too funny!! I'm usually notified of any reviews I get, but I wasn't notified about yours. It wasn't until I was reading them to reply to them that I saw it. Ask and ye shall receive, eh, since it's only been two days since you posted? Nope, I'm not dead, just busy with school and all the other stuff. I don't usually take this long to update, but this chapter just wouldn't get written. I was going to hold off and post the chapter tomorrow, until I read your review so asking does work. Thanks for the review!  
  
You all rock! Thank you so very much. Now on with the story.  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 10: Home Sweet Home  
  
Ryou was the first to react when Yami screamed and fell to the ground.  
  
He was on his feet and heading towards the fallen pharaoh before he even realized it. In the back of his mind, he could hear Bakura laughing his head off. The spirit was laughing so hard that he was having difficulty drawing breath, but he kept doing it. In between the laughter, Bakura kept murmuring. Ryou couldn't decipher everything the spirit was saying, but he did manage to catch a few 'stupid pharaoh', 'mindless spell caster', and 'a child could have done it better' comments. Ryou ignored the spirit and dropped to his knees beside Yugi. He frowned. When had Yugi taken over the body?  
  
"Woah, what the hell just happened?"  
  
Joey's voice was edged with panic, and Ryou couldn't blame him. Yami had closed his eyes and begun to chant the spell. Ryou hadn't understood what was said, but he knew that Bakura had. The spirit had shut himself in his soul room as soon as Yami had begun to chant, which had made Ryou suspicious. He'd been telling himself that he'd talk to the spirit later when Yami had screamed, clutched at his head and then fainted.  
  
"Is he alive?"  
  
Ryou resisted the urge to throw something at Tristan. Why would he ask something like that?  
  
*The idiot is right you know* Bakura said. He'd finally stopped laughing. *You should check to see if he's still breathing*  
  
Tentatively, Ryou checked Yugi for a pulse, and sighed in relief when he found one. "He's got a pulse, so he's alive."  
  
Ryou picked up Yugi's head and placed it in his lap, while Yugi's grandfather walked over to them and began to fuss over his grandson.  
  
"Yugi, can you hear me?" Mr. Moto asked. "Yami? Kaiba?"  
  
There was no response from the unconscious teen.  
  
**Bakura, do you know what happened?**  
  
Bakura did not reply. The spirit was mulling something over, his attention no longer on what was going on.  
  
**Bakura!**  
  
*Damn it, don't do that!* the spirit replied, annoyed. *What do you want?*  
  
**Do you know what happened?**  
  
Bakura shrugged. *Of course, I know. The pharaoh messed up the spell. Ra only knows where he and the others ended up*  
  
Ryou frowned. **What do you mean where they ended up? Yugi's body is right here. Where else would they be?**  
  
Bakura sighed in exasperation. When he spoke, his voice was condescending, as if speaking to a child.  
  
*Look at the puzzle, Ryou, it no longer glows. The spirits inside it are no longer there, which means that the pharaoh, the little runt, and Kaiba are no longer there*  
  
**How can you be so sure?**  
  
*Here, I'll show you*  
  
Before he could give his agreement, he felt himself being pulled out of his body. His surroundings became dark, before he found himself dropping towards a bright light. Bakura was falling beside him, but unlike Ryou, Bakura's face was calm and devoid of panic. They came to a stop right before they reached the bright light. Ryou looked down and saw nothing but an empty room.  
  
*The puzzle is empty, Ryou* Bakura said, pointing at the empty room.  
  
**If they're not in the puzzle, where are they? Why is Yugi's body still alive if his soul is no longer there?**  
  
Bakura shrugged. *The little runt's body does not need the soul to survive*  
  
**Where are they?**  
  
Bakura shrugged again, and a grin split his face.  
  
*I don't have the faintest idea. They're wherever the pharaoh sent them*  
  
"Ryou? Are you okay?"  
  
Ryou came back to his body to find Joey shaking him. He pushed the taller teen away from him.  
  
"I'm fine, Joey, I was just talking to Bakura. He seems to think that Yami messed up the spell and sent them somewhere else."  
  
"Are they okay?"  
  
Ryou turned in the direction of the timid voice and found Mokuba Kaiba sitting on the couch, his eyes full of tears.  
  
"They should be fine, wherever they are. I'm not sure how they're supposed to come back, though. I don't think Bakura does either."  
  
"So what do we do now?" Mr. Moto asked.  
  
Ryou looked down at his friend's peaceful face. Yugi looked as if he was just sleeping, but Ryou was worried about where he and his two companions had ended up.  
  
"Make him comfortable and wait for them to get back, I guess. I don't know what else to do."  
  
**~~**  
  
Yugi opened his eyes, only to close them again when the bright sunlight assaulted them. When had he gotten outside? He opened his eyes again, slower to let them adjust to the brightness, and looked around to find that sand surrounded him in all directions. The hot wind was strong, blowing the tiny grains on him. He was already half covered with the stuff, which made him wonder how long he'd been unconscious. His head began to ache, and that alone told him that he'd been out in the sun longer than he should have been.  
  
For lack of anything else to do, he began walking. He was very sure that Ryou did not live next to a desert, but at the moment, he was more concerned with getting out of the sun than with figuring out why he wasn't at Kaiba's mansion where he was supposed to be. Yugi didn't know where to go, so he picked a direction at random. His throat ached, and his lips were parched. He had been out in the sun long enough to have reached the first stages of heat stroke. If he didn't get to shade and got some water in him soon, he was going to be in very serious trouble.  
  
Had Yami's spell gone wrong? If it had, why was he in a desert? Shouldn't he be back at Ryou's house or in the puzzle? That thought brought a hint of panic with it. He was in control of the body, so Yami and Kaiba should be in the puzzle, right? He concentrated, trying to reach the link he shared with each of them, but found nothing but emptiness. He couldn't feel them in the puzzle either; it felt hollow and empty. Yugi cradled it in his hands and shivered when he touched the cool metal. The puzzle was usually warm, which indicated Yami's presence. Now, it felt as if he'd just taken it out of the refrigerator. For the first time in a long while, Yugi was truly alone.  
  
Yugi had been walking for a while when he heard the sound of horses. It was coming from behind him, and he turned to see a small disturbance in the scene behind him. The waves of heat blurred the scene, making it look as if he were seeing it through a glass of water. He would have chalked it up to a heat induced mirage, except that he could hear the sound of the horses as they moved through the sand. It was a small caravan, no more than a couple of wagons. It took Yugi a few moments to realize that he was looking at something out of a history book, at the very least, something he had never been exposed to at home. He stopped walking, awestruck at the sight.  
  
As the caravan got closer, a couple of men dismounted from the second wagon and began to run towards Yugi. They were covered only in a white cloth wrapped around their waist. They carried spears, and something in the back of Yugi's mind told him that he was looking at a couple of Egyptian guards. Yugi began to run away, but then stopped. He had nowhere to go, and would probably not outrun the two guards. Instead, he stood his ground and watched as they approached him.  
  
When they reached him, they came to a dead stop in front of him. Their eyes widened, and then they dropped to their knees in front of him, their heads bowed.  
  
"My pharaoh, we thought you were at the palace. It is unsafe for you to wander the desert on your own."  
  
Yugi's mouth dropped open. He wasn't the pharaoh, so why would the guards think he was. Unless. . . it couldn't be. He couldn't have been thrown back in time to Egypt during Yami's rule, could he have?  
  
"Is this how you protect me, by bowing before our enemies?"  
  
Yugi turned to see that the first wagon had come to a stop in front of him. A man that looked and sounded exactly like Kaiba had poked his head out of the covered wagon. All Yugi could see was the man's purple and gold headdress, but there was no mistaking the blue eyes and regal set to the face. He was looking at Kaiba, and yet the man was not Kaiba. He had to be the high priest depicted on the stone tablet Ishizu had shown them at the Domino museum.  
  
"There is no enemy here, only our pharaoh," one of the guards said.  
  
Yugi turned back to the men to see that they were still kneeling. Confused, Yugi turned to the priest, who motioned with his head, telling Yugi to do something.  
  
"You may rise," Yugi said, unsure if he was doing the right thing. "We should get on our way."  
  
The two guards got to their feet and mounted their horses. Yugi stood on the sand, not sure if he was supposed to go with them or not.  
  
"Well, Pharaoh," the priest said, emphasizing the title sarcastically, "are you coming?" He motioned for Yugi to get on the wagon, and he complied.  
  
Once Yugi was settled on the rich cushions of the wagon, and they were on their way again, the priest spoke.  
  
"Who are you? Where are you from?"  
  
Yugi stared at the man. The blue eyes examined him, unflinching, the face impassive. Lying to the priest would be useless, yet he couldn't tell him the truth. He wasn't even sure he knew what the truth was.  
  
"The guards seem to think that I'm the pharaoh."  
  
"You may look like Yami, but you're not. You wear the Millennium Puzzle, but it is most likely a fake. Your clothing is of a strange design, the cloth foreign. That garment was not made in Egypt."  
  
Yugi schooled his features into an emotionless mask. Inside, he was trembling with apprehension, his mind whirling to cope with everything it was being presented with. Instinctively, he knew that it'd be deadly to let the priest know of his fear, and hoped that his features did not give him away.  
  
"How would you know?"  
  
The priest did not reply. Instead, he shifted in his seat, his rich robes swirling around him. He leaned over and when he straightened, the Millennium Rod was in his hand.  
  
"Yami and I grew up in the palace together. I know him better than anyone else." The priest smiled then, a dark and dangerous thing. "I have ways of finding out what I want to know."  
  
Before Yugi could react, the priest was upon him. Effortlessly, the taller man pinned Yugi against the cushions. Yugi began to struggle, until the priest unsheathed the blade at the end of the Millennium Rod and pressed it against the soft flesh of his throat.  
  
"I wouldn't struggle, if I were you. I keep this blade very sharp."  
  
Yugi froze, staring into the cold, blue depths of the priest's eyes. The priest meant what he said. As if to prove his point, the priest jabbed the blade lightly into Yugi's throat, making it bleed slightly.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
Yugi said nothing. What could he say?  
  
The priest narrowed his eyes, anger flaring through them like a storm cloud.  
  
"Tell me! If you have plans to infiltrate the palace and kill the pharaoh for a foreign government, you will not succeed. I won't let you."  
  
Was that loyalty Yugi heard in the priest's voice? Was the man actually worried that he was here to harm the pharaoh? Suddenly, Yugi forgot his current predicament and thought about Yami. Where was he? Were he and Kaiba thrown back in time with him, or was he here alone? If he was here, would he take the place of the Yami of this time? Yugi tried to shake his head to clear the thoughts, but the pain of the blade cutting into his neck stopped him. He hissed and moved his head as far as he could the other way to alleviate the pain.  
  
"You won't talk, then," the priest stated. "Very well, I have ways of making you talk."  
  
He flipped the rod, bringing the top of it to hover directly in front of Yugi's face. The item began to glow, slightly at first, and then gaining intensity, until all Yugi could see was the golden eye in the center of it. Yugi felt a pressure at the back of his mind. It was pushing at it, attempting to gain access to his memories. Yugi fought it as best he could, and felt the powers of his puzzle fighting with him. Was this how Joey had felt during Battle City when Malik had taken over his mind? The gentle push against his mind suddenly became much stronger, making him cry out in surprise and pain. The push broke through, and Yugi was thrust into a world of memory.  
  
****  
  
"Kaiba, you jerk! Come back and take it like a man."  
  
Yugi held tightly to Joey's arms, desperate to keep him from provoking Kaiba more than he already had. Joey pushed Yugi aside and stood toe to toe with Kaiba.  
  
"You don't know the meaning of the word, you dog," Kaiba said. "You should stay in the dog house where you belong."  
  
"How would you know about that? You spend all of your time with your machines that you've forgotten how to talk to people."  
  
Yugi stepped in between them and looked up at them. He put one hand on each of their chests and pushed them apart.  
  
"Don't do this, guys. It's not worth it."  
  
Kaiba chuckled. "Listen to your little friend, Wheeler. He's right, you don't want me to break your jaw."  
  
Kaiba walked away, leaving a very angry Joey behind.  
  
"Why'd you do that, Yugi? Why'd you interfere?"  
  
"Kaiba's not worth it, Joey. He's not worth you getting expelled from school."  
  
****  
  
"Grandpa, grandpa, are you okay?"  
  
His grandfather, who was lying on the floor, weakly lifted his head to look at him.  
  
"Yugi, I failed. I wanted to teach that boy, Kaiba, a lesson about the heart of the cards, but I lost." He groaned, and lowered his head.  
  
"How's the old man feeling, huh?"  
  
Kaiba stood a few feet away from them, looking pleased.  
  
"Kaiba, you sleaze, what have you done to him?" Joey asked.  
  
"We had a duel, that's all, with each one of us putting up our most valuable card, but I guess playing against a champion like myself was just too much stimulation for the old fool."  
  
"Kaiba, you should be ashamed of yourself," Tea yelled.  
  
Kaiba laughed. "It was fair, and look at the sweet prize I won."  
  
Kaiba held up the Blue Eyes White Dragon card, smiling in satisfaction, before he tore it in two.  
  
"Grandpa's most precious card," Yugi said, horrified.  
  
His grandfather and the others gasped in surprise, but no one could do anything.  
  
"Yes, the Blue Eyes White Dragon is a rare and powerful card, and this one will never be used against me.  
  
"Ah, my Blue Eyes White Dragon, my treasure," his grandfather said, his voice weak. He groaned and looked away.  
  
"Grandpa, hold on," Yugi said. He looked up at Kaiba, his eyes filling with tears. "How could you do such a thing?"  
  
Before Kaiba could reply, his grandfather was holding out his deck of cards. "Yugi, here, take this," he said, his voice breaking with both pain and emotion. "I built this deck, I put my soul in these cards, and I taught you everything I know, Yugi. Take them. Take my cards and teach him respect. Teach Kaiba respect for the heart of the cards, Yugi."  
  
"But grandpa," Yugi countered, his voice breaking as well, "you need help. I need to get you to a doctor."  
  
Suddenly, Kaiba spoke up. "It sounds like an excuse. Your friends can care for your grandfather, while you and I duel. Unless you're afraid."  
  
Kaiba's words made Yugi's anger rise, setting aside his fear and worry for the moment.  
  
"Take him, Yugi," Joey encouraged. "We can take care of your grandpa while you take care of creepy Kaiba. Teach that rich, spoiled brat what a real duel is all about."  
  
"For your grandpa, Yugi," Tea added.  
  
Yugi turned to his friends, surprised and touched at their encouragement.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"Trust me," Joey said. "You're like the best player I've ever seen and you've got the Millennium Puzzle. You can do this, Yugi, I know you can."  
  
"We all do," Tea added.  
  
Yugi thought it over for a moment, before making a decision. He took his grandfather's deck from the elder man's hand.  
  
"Okay, Grandpa, I'll do it."  
  
"I know you will my boy."  
  
****  
  
Wrenched out of the memory, Yugi found himself once again staring at the priest. The priest's eyes were glassy, unfocused. Had the priest seen his memories? What would he make out of them if he had? Yugi used the opportunity to grab the hand holding his throat. He pushed it away from his heck, and then used his other arm to push the priest away. The priest fell and landrd on a mound of cushions. He remained there for a few more moments. Yugi contemplated jumping out of the wagon, but decided against it. He'd have nowhere else to go.  
  
The priest suddenly shook his head and sat up. He seemed confused, and Yugi knew then that the man had seen his memories, had seen Yugi's memory of Kaiba, his double. He straightened himself up but made no motion to come closer to Yugi.  
  
"That was not what I expected, Yugi, but it will have to suffice," the priest said.  
  
Yugi had heard Kaiba say his name many times, but it had never sounded so much like a curse as it did at that moment.  
  
"I may find a use for you after all."  
  
**~~**  
  
"Are you out of your mind? If the palace guards come in here and find him, they're going to execute us."  
  
The woman's voice was frantic. Yami didn't have to see her to tell that much. He was on his back on something soft, his eyes closed. He decided to remain that way, so that he could hear the rest of the conversation, even though he didn't recognize the woman's voice.  
  
"What was I supposed to do, mother? Leave him out there to dehydrate and die in the desert?"  
  
That voice Yami definitely recognized, it was Mokuba Kaiba's voice.  
  
"You shouldn't have brought him here, Yuya? Did anyone see you when you brought him inside our house?"  
  
The boy sighed dramatically. "Nait was with me, she helped."  
  
There was silence, until another voice Yami recognized reached his ears.  
  
"We couldn't leave him there. He would have died if we'd walked away."  
  
The girl, whom Yami knew as Rebecca Hawkins, was not going to be persuaded. The children's names were Egyptian, which led Yami to wonder where he was. He should be at Kaiba's mansion right now, but he doubted that Kaiba had hired Egyptian housekeepers.  
  
*Hey, Kaiba, have you changed your staff lately?* Yami asked.  
  
He was greeted with silence.  
  
*Kaiba?*  
  
Nothing.  
  
Concentrating, Yami reached out to the link he shared with Yugi, and through that link, he attempted to reach Kaiba. He was unsuccessful at reaching either one of his companions. He could no longer feel Yugi, and Kaiba's spirit was gone as well. Yami began to panic. What had happened? How had the spell gone wrong? Where were Yugi and Kaiba? Had something happened to them? The woman's voice drew him out of his own morbid thoughts.  
  
"You kids have no idea what you're getting into. We do not keep the pharaoh in our house. If his guards find him here, they will assume that we were the ones that harmed him and will execute us. If he wakes up here, he will assume that we were the ones that harmed him and have us executed."  
  
Yugi had told him that the pharaohs ceased to rule Egypt about 2400 years before his time, when the Romans had invaded. Yami had been heartbroken to hear that, and had asked Yugi to get him a history book so he could read about the demise of his country. Yugi had pointed out that Yami would not be able to read the book, since it wasn't written in Hieroglyphs, but had promised to tell him more about the history of Egypt. He'd never gotten around to it and now Yami wish he had. Wherever he was, he was no longer in Yugi's time.  
  
Suddenly, he felt something wet against his palm. Without realizing he'd done it, Yami opened his eyes and sat up, pushing the animal away from him. Astonished gasps from the three other people in the room drew his attention to them, and he was surprised by the woman's look of horror.  
  
"I will not hurt you," he said to her, but his promise did nothing to calm her.  
  
He looked at the boy, who looked exactly like Mokuba Kaiba, wild black hair and all, and the girl, who looked exactly like Rebecca Hawkins. The children stared back at him, but they were not afraid. They were curious.  
  
"My Pharaoh, I apologize for my children's indiscretion. They should not have touched you."  
  
Yami got up and went to the woman.  
  
"They saved my life, and for that I am grateful," he said and looked around the modest room.  
  
The house was small, with a thick cloth serving as a door. Outside, Yami could hear the bustle of activity as the other residents went about their business. It was daytime, and Yami found himself unsure of what to do.  
  
"Here, Pharaoh."  
  
Yami looked up to see that Yuya was holding out a bowl to him. He took it and found it filled with water. He realized at that moment that he was thirsty, and drank the water quickly.  
  
"Not so fast or you'll choke," the woman warned.  
  
Yami took her advice and sipped the cool liquid gently.  
  
"Thank you," he said to the boy, and then to her when he'd finished the water. "I am grateful to you and your children for saving my life."  
  
He didn't correct them, since he wasn't exactly sure that he wasn't the pharaoh. If he'd been thrown back into Ancient Egypt, it was likely that he had taken the place of his counterpart. For all intents and purposes, he was the pharaoh. Since that was the case, he should probably get back to the palace.  
  
The woman bowed respectfully. "We're at your service, my Pharaoh. You should probably rest for a while longer and regain your strength. Yuya and Neit can get you whatever you need."  
  
Yami nodded, and she retreated into another room of the house. Yami went back to the bed and lay down, feeling dizzy all of a sudden. He looked at the children, who now seemed afraid of him. He smiled at them, and motioned for them to get closer. Since he was here, he might as well find out a little more about what he'd gotten himself into.  
  
**~~**  
  
"Yami, what the hell are you wearing? You look ridiculous."  
  
Yami's eyes narrowed slightly. "You should look at yourself, Seto. It is you who looks ridiculous in those clothes. Where did you get them? They do not look as if they were made in Egypt." Yami made his way to Kaiba. "What are you doing here? I thought you had gone on a pilgrimage?"  
  
Kaiba's stomach did a small flip. Since when had Yami started calling him by his first name? Why were the two other people in the room still on the floor? Why did Yami think he was on a pilgrimage? More importantly, how had he gotten his body back? Didn't Yami remember what had happened at Ryou's house?  
  
"Pharaoh, I came as soon as I could. I am sorry for my delay."  
  
The man who addressed Yami bowed, but Yami waved him off. "It does not matter, Kamoses. Attend to the High Priest at once."  
  
The man neared Kaiba, and he would have backed away if his head hadn't hurt so much. Instead, he let the man take a look at his eyes, using some weird light thing that he shone in them. What was going on?  
  
Suddenly, he had a vision of the person who looked like him, standing in this same room, addressing the Pharaoh Yami. It was then that it dawned on Kaiba that he was no longer in Yugi's puzzle. Somehow, he was in Ancient Egypt. If he was here, then Yami and Yugi should be as well, right? Yami was here, but not the Yami that he knew. What had happened to the other one?  
  
The man who Kaiba supposed was a healer, put a hand on the back of his head, which made Kaiba hiss in pain.  
  
"Watch it," he growled.  
  
The man jerked away from him, his head bowed. "I am sorry, Priest Seto. You have sustained an injury to the back of your head. If you will return to your room, I will put a healing salve on it to diminish the pain and the nausea."  
  
"Who did this?" Yami suddenly asked.  
  
The woman on the floor whimpered slightly, and the man next to her shushed her.  
  
"Mayet meant no harm, Pharaoh," the man explained. "Tell him, Mayet."  
  
The woman sniffled. She looked at Kaiba, tears running down her face, before she addressed Pharaoh Yami.  
  
"I did not expect to see him in the kitchen, Pharaoh. I thought he was a burglar and I hit him in the head. I am sorry. I'm very sorry," she repeated and bowed her head until her forehead was touching the ground.  
  
Kaiba felt uncharacteristic pity towards her. He clumsily got to his feet, and almost toppled down again when the room began to spin wildly. Only Pharaoh Yami's arm around his waist kept him from falling over.  
  
"It's just a bump to the head, no big deal," Kaiba said. "Don't worry about it."  
  
Pharaoh Yami turned to him, his face a mask of surprise. The man and woman, along with the healer, all sported similar expressions of surprise on their faces.  
  
"You are injured more than you are letting on, Seto. Let us get you to your room so the healer can work his magic."  
  
Without another word, Pharaoh Yami led Kaiba towards another part of the palace. Kaiba would have paid attention to where he was going, except that his vision was blurry and he couldn't really see. It became too much of an effort, so he simply let Pharaoh Yami guide him.  
  
After what seemed like forever, they entered a spacious room. Kaiba looked around, astounded. The room was as big as the one in his mansion, but unlike his own room, this one was furnished in lavish, gold trimmed furniture that was upholstered with purple and gold cloth. The room exuded royalty and power, which Kaiba supposed made sense. Pharaoh Yami led him to the bed and gently laid him down.  
  
"Prepare your salve, healer. I will take care of the rest."  
  
The healer did as instructed as Kaiba lay down on the bed. The mattress was comfortable, as were the huge pillows. Kaiba sighed in relief as the cool material hit his face.  
  
"I am finished, my Pharaoh. If you have further need of me, I will be in my rooms."  
  
Pharaoh Yami did not say anything. Kaiba wasn't sure what the man was doing, until he felt the pharaoh sit down behind him and begin to caress his hair.  
  
Kaiba tensed. "What are you doing?"  
  
Pharaoh Yami chuckled. "I am looking for the injury, Seto. I need to apply the salve."  
  
He continued to caress his hair and scalp, until Kaiba hissed in pain again.  
  
"Found it," the pharaoh said. "Relax, Seto. You are never this tense around me."  
  
Kaiba took a deep breath. Relax? How could he possibly relax? He'd never seen Yami act this nice, this caring, and Kaiba didn't know what to make of it. Unlike the other Yami, who was constantly in a confrontational state whenever Kaiba saw him, this Yami was calm, relaxed, and seemed very sure of himself.  
  
"We've grown up together, Seto. You are the closest thing to a brother I have ever had, so there is no reason for you to be tense around me. You should know by now that I will not harm you, nor will I let harm come to you," Pharaoh Yami said as he applied a cool balm to the back of his head.  
  
Brothers? He and Yami? Kaiba pictured the relationship he had with Mokuba, and then tried to picture that same relationship with Yami. It didn't add up in his head at all. He didn't see how it was possible.  
  
"There, I'm all done. I will cast a spell so you can sleep without pain until the healer's balm begins to work," Pharaoh Yami said as he got up from the bed. "I will see you when you awaken."  
  
Kaiba suddenly felt sleepy. He tried to fight the feeling as he'd done so many times when he had deadlines to meet, but was unable to keep sleep at bay. He closed his eyes and succumbed to slumber.  
  
**~~**  
  
Ta da! That's another boring chapter for ya! Well, I hope it wasn't too boring.  
  
Note: Yugi's first memory came from my demented imagination. The second one came from the first episode of the English dubbed series.  
  
Next up: Mokuba decides to help out in the only way he can. Priest Akunadin has plans for Yugi. Yami goes to the palace. Kaiba tries to deal with a nice Yami. Until next time! 


	11. Doppelganger

Greetings!  
  
Is anyone watching the dubbed version of Yu-Gi-Oh!? The reason I ask is because the Noa arc (which is what is currently showing) is my favorite arc in the series so far (with the exception of the later episodes in the current Japanese arc, which kick butt!). I became a Kaiba fan because of this arc, and it inspired this story. The dubbing isn't entirely horrible, even though I still find their aversion to death funny. I mean, according to the dub, Seto and Mokuba ended up in the orphanage because their parents disappeared, not died.  
  
I've had this chapter ready to post since Friday night, but my Internet connection went down and I just got it back today, so I'm sorry for the delay. Also, I wrote in my preview for last chapter that Kaiba would have to deal with a nice Yami. That's going to have to wait until next chapter, because this one got too long!  
  
One more thing: Someone in one of my reviews (I can't remember if it was for this story or for No Kinen Ni) recommended a story to me. For the life of me, I can't remember what the story was or who wrote it. I totally forgot about it until now, and I'd like to go read it. If the person who recommended it is reading this, please let me know what it is again. Thanks!  
  
Reviews:  
  
Mittens no Hikari: Yup, they all got sent to different points. It would not have been as fun if they'd all ended up in the same place.  
  
Nenya85: Thank you! I always though that was the best part of the manga: Seto was still power hungry, but he kept his loyalties to the pharaoh. I wanted to honor that. You are so right about Yami and Seto! Unfortunately, I ran out of room in this chapter (it is about 13 pages) and didn't get to write Pharaoh Yami and Kaiba. I'll have it next chapter, though.  
  
SerafinaMoon: Hey there! Long time no hear from you. Don't worry about it. I totally understand being busy. I'm glad to hear from you once in a while, though! Good luck.  
  
Lightning Sage (Destiny): Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
DarkFoxy: Hello! Like I told SerafinaMoon, don't worry about it. I work and go to school, so I understand that it's hard to do everything you want to do. I'm glad that you're still enjoying the story, though!  
  
Aura Black Chan: Yup, it's possible. Pharaoh Yami loves Priest Seto like a brother. Sadly, I didn't have a chance to write it in this chapter, but I'll do it in the next.  
  
Ieyre: Thank you very much!  
  
Ginger Ninja: *blushing* I'm glad that you don't mind my plot twists. I like keeping myself surprised, and it works out even better when you all enjoy it too. Thanks!  
  
Adrienne: I have an idea for the Malik/Serenity fic. It'll actually be a songfic. I have a couple I want to write, so hopefully I can get to it soon. Rebecca Hawkins is that annoying little girl with the teddy bear that wanted to duel Yugi's grandfather for the Blue Eyes White Dragon. She comes back in episode 147 (I think) and is much more interesting and less annoying. I got to like her a lot so I wanted to include her. Yes, I do adore big reviews. . . and your plushies are always such a pleasure to hear from you know!  
  
Joeyz girl: No, I didn't put that on the end because I wanted compliments, I really thought the chapter was boring. I think this one is boring too. . . I don't know, it's like when I don't have action stuff going, I think it's boring. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, though! It does make me feel better ^__^.  
  
Hobbit13: Yeah, Priest Seto definite has it worse than Kaiba. He's not the one with sinister plans for Yugi, though. You'll know what I mean when you read the chapter. Thanks for the review!  
  
MollyJean: Hey there and welcome! Thank you very much for your kind words. I'm very glad that you gave the story a chance and that you liked it!  
  
Sunrise: YAY! Glad to have you back! Hey, no review is pointless. . . Thanks!  
  
YumeTakato: Thanks! I hope the update was soon enough for you!  
  
Solitaire and Xpyne: Thanks for the review and for the input! I'm definitely going to give the yaoi aspect of this story some serious thought in both directions. Both have their advantages, but I do love the relationship between the three. . . sigh. Decisions, decisions. Thanks again!  
  
Mutou Yasu: ^__^ Thank you for the compliments *blushing*. Yup, Yami sure screwed up and got them stranded. Kaiba is not going to be happy when he finds out.  
  
Crystal Hikari: What are you confused about? Please feel free to ask and if I can answer without giving away the plot, I'll be more than happy to. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Millennium Dreamer: Thanks! Yes, I've read that chapter of the manga when Akunadin is thinking about never saying that he's Seto's father. He's really power hungry and wants his son to become pharaoh. I think it makes for great conflict, even though neither the pharaoh nor the priest have a clue that their cousins.  
  
Mezu: Thank you very much!  
  
Happy: Thank you!  
  
Write Already: It's okay. . . I didn't take it as an insult; I thought it was cute and funny. I mean, I was flattered that you wanted to read the story enough to yell at me (^_^), and it had been a while since I'd updated. Thank you very much for reviewing!  
  
LorayT: Thanks for giving the fic a try! I usually don't like the fics that take place in Ancient Egypt either, but I'd read so many bad ones that I just had to try writing one my way. I hope it turns out okay. Thank you for your opinion on the yaoi issue. You're right, a lot of the best YGO fics on ff.net are yaoi. I think that's probably why I want to write one, because of reading all of those great ones. Like I told Solitaire and Xpyne, I'll give the issue some thought in both directions and see what happens. Thank you very much for saying that you like how I portray Yugi/Yami/Seto. I really do adore the pairing, and am glad that I seem to be doing something right with them.  
  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon: Uh, oh. . . caffeine is never good, especially late at night!  
  
Adoring Fan (cool nickname!): *blushing* Thank you very much, you made my night. Thanks for your kind words, and for your opinion. I appreciate it.  
  
Tainted Fortune: Thank you very much! I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter. There'll be more Seto/Yami stuff in the next chapter, so stay tuned!  
  
Deranged Fangirl: ^__^ Thank you!  
  
^ - ^: Thank you very much! Glad you liked the chapter.  
  
Moonlight Shadow: You'll find out more about Akunadin's plans in this and the next chapter. Akunadin is not a very nice man. You're actually not very far off about what's going to happen. They will all come together and confuse the hell out of everybody at some point. It's going to be so much fun to write. Thanks! Glad you fond the link helpful and thank you for your opinion!  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Hey there! I'm happy to hear from you whenever you can reply, so don't worry about it. Yami Bakura is so much fun. I don't know why I don't write him more often. He's like the only one that actually says what's on his mind. I thought Yugi playing pharaoh was so adorable. I may have to do that again. I'm glad that you liked the chapter.  
  
I think that's everyone. My apologies if I forgot anyone (it's happened before), I don't do it on purpose. Enjoy the chapter!  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 11: Doppelganger  
  
Pharaoh Yami made himself comfortable on Priest Seto's bed and watched the man sleep.  
  
Seto had been acting strangely for the past few weeks. He'd been stressed, preoccupied and rather moody. Granted, Seto was normally moody, but the past few weeks had found him moodier and unusually violent. The priest wasn't physically violent, because he always relied on his strong magic to defend himself. Lately, Seto had been casting the strangest spells, punishing people in more brutal and sadistic ways than he usually did. Yami had tried to talk to him, get Seto to tell him what was bothering him, but nothing had worked. Seto had also been spending a lot of time with Akunadin, which Yami was beginning to suspect had a lot to do with his priest's sudden change in demeanor.  
  
Looking at the man now, though, brought a smile to Yami's face. The pilgrimage Seto had insisted he go on must have helped, because he didn't seem as stressed and uptight as he had been before he left. He was still paranoid and defensive, even when he was clearly injured, but that was normal for Seto.  
  
One thing Yami didn't understand was the strange clothing Seto was wearing. He took a piece of the strange, white cloth that Seto wore over his clothing, running his fingers over the material. It felt soft and very foreign in his hand. He fingered the metal that adorned the coat, working his way up to a strange insignia on the collar. Yami ran his finger over the strange markings, noting that the same insignia was found on the priest's waist. Yami ran his fingers over the strange, black coverings on Seto's chest and legs, wondering why the priest had given up his comfortable robes in exchange for the clothing he currently wore.  
  
Shaking his head, Yami sighed. He would ask the priest about the clothes when he woke up. Frowning, Yami noticed that Seto wore the Millennium Puzzle. A replica of it, at least, since Yami himself wore the original. Yami held the puzzle in one hand and ran a finger over the smooth surface. It felt real enough. Why would Seto have a replica of the puzzle? Where was the Millennium Rod the priest always carried? Something else caught Yami's eye, and the pharaoh picked up the small, rectangular charm that hung from another chain on the priest's neck. There was a small, metal protrusion on one side. Curious, Yami pushed on it, and was startled when the cover of the charm popped open to reveal the image of a very young boy. The boy had a shock of black hair and the lightest eyes, asides from Seto's own, that Yami had ever seen.  
  
"Who is this boy? What has Seto gotten into?"  
  
Yami dropped the charm without closing it. The priest didn't look any different, and yet he was not himself either. Could this be a trick? Could someone have infiltrated his palace pretending to be his priest? If so, where was Seto?  
  
Yami sighed again. He was getting ahead of himself. The wars raging outside of Egypt had him on edge, and he was starting to make up evil plots when there were none. Seto would explain everything once he woke up.  
  
**~~**  
  
Priest Seto could not stop starting at the boy in front of him and he couldn't get the images he'd seen from the boy's mind out of his head. He couldn't stop seeing the image of himself, dressed in clothing he'd never seen, being addressed as 'Kaiba'. This boy, Yugi, knew him, and yet didn't know him. Seto could see recognition in his eyes, shadowed with confusion and disbelief. Fear was there as well, which was just as well. Fear was the only way to control people, and Seto would ensure that the boy knew in whose hands his fate rested.  
  
The priest could not explain what he'd seen, because there was nothing in history to describe what had happened. Had he really seen the boy's memories, or was the boy such a skilled spellcaster that he could generate the images at will? If he were a magician, would that explain the fact that he looked almost identical to the pharaoh? Could he have cast a spell to fool the pharaoh's troops into thinking that he was their sovereign, and then have the pharaoh's own men deliver him to the palace to carry out his plan?  
  
Seto chuckled. That could easily be tested. If the boy had cast a spell to make himself look like the pharaoh, Seto could easily break it. No one in Egypt, except the pharaoh himself, was a magician as skilled as the priest, so dealing with one boy's clumsy spells would not be a problem.  
  
He looked at where Yugi sat, hugging his knees to his chest, and smiled. He raised the Millennium Rod, chanting a spell as he did so. When the spell was finished, Seto flung it at the boy, intent on ripping off the disguise the boy had fabricated for himself. Yugi gasped, tensed momentarily, and then slumped to the ground face down. Seto went over to him, intent on turning him over. As soon as he touched Yugi, however, he was given another glimpse into Yugi's mind.  
  
****  
  
"Yugi, you need to give yourself more credit."  
  
Seto saw his pharaoh standing in front of Yugi. Yami looked transparent, like a spirit. Yugi looked at the floor and shook his head.  
  
"I almost lost you, Yami. I let the puzzle be stolen, and then shattered. If I hadn't been able to put it together in time, we would both be dead."  
  
Yami chuckled. "Yugi, I am already dead."  
  
Seto's eyes widened. What did Yami mean by that?  
  
Yugi's head snapped up, tears falling down his cheeks. "That's not funny."  
  
Yami sighed. "I am sorry, Yugi. I do not mean to belittle your conflict, but I do need you to understand that no matter how you got to be in that situation, you dealt with it. You dueled Marik on your own, almost beat him, and then put the puzzle back together while the building burned around you. I would not call that being weak; I would call that being strong."  
  
Yugi raised his head. "Do you think so?"  
  
Yami nodded. "I know so."  
  
"I'll help you find your past, Yami. You helped me save my grandfather, and I'm going to be here for you while you find your memories, I promise."  
  
Yami smiled, and put his transparent hands over Yugi's.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
****  
  
Seto retracted his hand as if he'd been burned. He stared at Yugi's back, but did not touch him again. What had he just seen? Why had Yami said he was dead? Seto frowned. Yami had been wearing the same thing Yugi was wearing now. The clothes were not Egyptian at all. Come to think of it, his double had been wearing a similar outfit in Yugi's other memories.  
  
He shook his head. For the first time in a long time, he did not know what was going on, or what to do about it.  
  
"Priest Seto, we have arrived at the palace."  
  
The guard's words shook the priest out of his musings. Had it been that long already? A shadow fell over the exit, and Priest Akunadin parted the cloth. His eyes went to Seto, and then fell to Yugi.  
  
"What is the meaning of this, Seto? The pharaoh is in the palace, I saw him myself a few hours ago."  
  
Seto shook his head and kept his distance from Yugi. He didn't want any more of those memories.  
  
"He is not the pharaoh, Akunadin. I found him wandering in the desert. He looks like Yami and wears the Millennium Puzzle, but he is not Yami.  
  
Akunadin boarded the wagon and kneeled next to Yugi. Roughly, the priest turned the boy over. He gasped as he saw the face.  
  
"He is an exact duplicate, Seto. Do you know what this could mean for us?"  
  
Seto's jaw clenched as Akunadin reminded him of the reason he'd left the palace in the first place. Seto did not share Akunadin's desire for him to replace Yami as pharaoh, no matter how much the elder priest tried to convince him.  
  
"He is not an exact copy, Akunadin."  
  
"The guards thought he was the pharaoh, did they not? They wouldn't have let him on otherwise."  
  
"Yes, they did."  
  
Akunadin picked Yugi up, cradling the boy in his arms.  
  
"Have you considered my offer? You could rule over all of Egypt if we plan things right. It is your right. Having this boy will only make things easier for both of us."  
  
Seto sighed, wishing he'd stayed away longer.  
  
"Why do you insist that it is my right to rule Egypt as pharaoh?" Seto asked. "Yami is Pharaoh Akunamukanon's son, so it is his birthright to rule Egpyt. You, as Akunamukanon's brother have more of a right to the throne than I do."  
  
Priest Akunadin's eyes narrowed, and his eyes shifted down to the boy he held in his hands.  
  
"Don't tell me that you've never though about ruling over all of Egypt. I know that you have, Seto. I know that you and Yami disagree on a lot of things, and you could probably rule better than him. Why don't you take this chance I'm offering you, Seto? I know you want it."  
  
Seto shook his head and looked away. Truth was, he did want to rule Egypt. He and Yami did disagree on a lot of policies, and Seto thought that he could do more good if he alone made the decisions. Not to mention that the thought of ruling the strongest nation in the world sent shivers down his spine. He wanted the power, he craved it, but Yami was his friend and had been for most of his life. Seto wasn't quite ready to turn on him.  
  
"Take off your cape and put it over this boy. I don't want anyone else seeing him."  
  
Seto frowned but did as he was told. "What are you going to do with him?"  
  
Akunadin smiled, and it sent shivers down Seto's spine. "I'll keep him safe for when we need him. Don't worry about him, leave him to me."  
  
**~~**  
  
"You should try being a bit quieter if you want to successfully follow someone."  
  
Yami turned around, his face and body hidden underneath a white, linen, robe, and glared at the two kids who had been following him since he'd left their house.  
  
"We're sorry, Pharaoh," Yuya said, coming out from behind the vase where he'd been hiding. "We just wanted to see the palace."  
  
Yami sighed and walked to them. Neit, who had been hiding behind another large vase, came out and stood in front of him. He and the two kids had talked at length while he recovered at their house. They had told him about finding him unconscious in the desert, and Yami had asked them questions about the state of the country and the royal family without being too obvious about it. They kids had taken it as more of a game and had challenged each other to give the correct answer. Yami had praised them and their mother, which had made the children glow. The mother had given him a robe to disguise himself while traveling through the village, and he'd set out towards the palace. He had almost reached it when he'd realized he had two followers.  
  
"It is not safe for you to travel alone, Yuya. You have put yourself and Neit in danger by coming with me."  
  
Neit stepped up to him, her chin raised defiantly. "We are almost twelve years old, Pharaoh. We have taken care of ourselves so far."  
  
Yami smiled at the girl's stubbornness. Yugi's friend Rebecca was just as stubborn as this girl.  
  
"I have no doubt that you are wise beyond your years, Neit. However, this is not the right time to wander around alone."  
  
Yuya stepped up to his friend and pulled her back a bit. He raised his head, his eyes clouded by fear.  
  
"Are you going to punish us, Pharaoh? We meant no harm."  
  
Yami shook his head, wondering what kind of a ruler he'd been, if children were afraid of him.  
  
"I am not going to punish you, but I can not allow you to return to your home by yourselves. You will accompany me to the palace."  
  
Yuya's eyes immediately brightened, as did Neit's.  
  
"Wow, we're going to the palace!" Yuya yelled.  
  
Yami chuckled at their enthusiasm, and continued on his way.  
  
**~~**  
  
"I've got to give myself credit, I trained the kid properly."  
  
Gozaburo Kaiba had managed to get one of the many assistants that were scurrying around to get him the company's financial reports. She'd seemed very surprised that he was even talking to her, and had been even more surprised when he'd asked for the documents. He'd glared at her, and she'd immediately gotten out of her seat and had returned with the documents he'd requested. As she'd left, she'd mumbled something about him needing to have more manners and doing his own errands, which Gozaburo had laughed at.  
  
Yes, he'd trained Seto well in the art of controlling the people that worked for him. He'd also apparently trained him well in the financial department. Who would have thought that Kaiba Corporation, as a gaming company and under Seto's leadership, could make more money than it had under Gozaburo's military regime? Gozaburo was still angry that Seto had completely destroyed everything he'd done and cancelled all of the military contracts he'd worked years to obtain, but seeing how Seto had more than doubled Kaiba Corporation's revenues with his silly inventions, Gozaburo wasn't going to complain. He wasn't going to stand by and let wrongdoings go unpunished or unfixed either.  
  
"Nancy, I want a list of our board members, as well as our investors and clients," Gozaburo said into the small speaker phone on the desk. If he couldn't get the information out of Seto's computer, he would make Seto's employees get it for him.  
  
"Mr. Kaiba, the information you requested is on your computer."  
  
Gozaburo growled. "I didn't ask you where it was, I asked you to get it for me. Do it now!"  
  
"Yes, Mr. Kaiba," the woman said, and cut off the communication.  
  
Gozaburo turned to the computer on the desk and opened up an internet browser. He still remembered every military contract he'd had, along with the men who he'd dealt with. He was willing to let Kaiba Corp. continue to market gaming systems, as long as he could deal with military contracts as well. Once he got rid of Seto completely, he would have no need for the gaming part of the corporation anymore. He would need another way to make money, and military contracts were the way to go. Seto's inventions, including the virtual reality system he'd refused to let Gozaburo use for military purposes when it had been first invented, were now all under his control. He was sure that the people who had been interested in the virtual reality programs for military purposes years ago would still be interested in them now.  
  
A spark of anger flared as he remembered the confrontation he'd had with Seto over his virtual reality program. Seto had been fourteen at the time, but had been every bit as stubborn as always. He'd been dead set against the use of his program for the military and had waltzed into this same office to plead with Gozaburo to stop demonstrating it to potential clients. Gozaburo had laughed in his face, and had the kid carried out of the office by two bodyguards. It had felt good at the time, but mere days later, Seto had called him to the board room to announce that he had controlling interest in Kaiba Corporation. His adoptive son and his own board members had betrayed him, and his heart had not been able to take the strain. He'd begun to plan his revenge then, and couldn't help but laugh at the fact that he was carrying it out now.  
  
Seto would pay for betraying him. He would pay for taking everything Gozaburo had taught him and using it against him, and he would pay for costing him his life. He now had Seto's body, and would soon have his company, and his life.  
  
The door to the office opened and a short, overweight woman walked in with thick folders in her arms.  
  
"Here is what you requested, Mr. Kaiba. Is there anything else?"  
  
Gozaburo motioned for her to set the files down on the desk, and she did so quickly.  
  
"I need a print out of the code to my virtual reality program. I want to know how it's being used and where. If there is anything in production regarding that program, I want to know about it. Do you understand?"  
  
The woman frowned. She stared at him, as if trying to figure out what was wrong. Gozaburo was counting on the fact that these people seemed to be afraid to get on Seto's bad side to think too much about what he was asking of them. He couldn't afford for them to get smart and start asking questions, or figure out that he was not acting like Seto would.  
  
"Do you have a problem? If you do, you can easily be replaced."  
  
The woman's jaw clenched and she squared her shoulders.  
  
"There is no problem, Mr. Kaiba. I'll have that information to you as soon as I can gather it."  
  
"See that you do, now go away."  
  
She turned on her heel and practically ran out of the office.  
  
Gozaburo sat at his desk and laughed. Oh, how he'd missed this. He took a deep breath and grinned.  
  
"It's good to be home."  
  
**~~**  
  
"Why are we doing this again, Mokuba?"  
  
Joey stepped into the elevator at Kaiba Corp. and shuddered as the car groaned before it began to descend. He watched the numbers on the display drop, until the car stopped on level B5.  
  
"My brother has sacrificed his life for this company and I'm not about to let Gozaburo do anything to jeopardize it," Mokuba answered as they exited the elevator.  
  
The corridor they were on was dark, only illuminated by small light fixtures every dozen feet. The air conditioning was colder down here, and Joey shivered, thinking he should have brought a sweater.  
  
"Okay, so that's all well and good, but how exactly are we going to do that?"  
  
Mokuba didn't answer. He stepped into a darkened room and stumbled around until he found the light. They came up to a well reinforced, metal door, and Mokuba slipped the card locket out of his necklace and ran it through the scanner beside the door. A sequence of numbers flashed by on the screen, and a flash of light caught Mokuba in the eye, scanning his retina, before the light turned green and the door opened.  
  
"I thought those were just jewelry," he said, pointing to the locket Mokuba had put back on the chain around his neck. "Isn't it dangerous to carry it around like that?"  
  
Mokuba shrugged. "Like you said, everyone thinks it's just a gaudy locket."  
  
They entered the room to find banks of computer equipment lining the walls. A bigger computer stood at the center, apart from the others.  
  
"This is Kaiba Corporation's mainframe computer. Everything about the company is stored in this machine."  
  
Joey looked at the thing. "What do you mean everything?"  
  
Mokuba sat down on an empty chair and began to type commands into a blank screen.  
  
"All of our financial information, client lists, ongoing projects, future projects, the specifications for all of our machines and software, everything is stored here. Seto, I, and two of our current board members are the only people with access to this mainframe."  
  
Mokuba paused as a couple of screens beside them came to life, displaying various bits of information that made no sense to Joey.  
  
"It looks like Gozaburo has already been locked out of the system. He tried to access files from Seto's office, and when he couldn't properly gain access, he was locked out," Mokuba said, laughing. "That ignorant bastard, he should have stayed dead," Mokuba added, uncharacteristic venom creeping into his voice.  
  
Joey sat down next to the kid and put a hand on his shoulder. "What's up with this Gozaburo guy, Mokuba? I've never seen Kaiba, or you, as freaked out as you are right now. What did he do?"  
  
Mokuba sighed, and turned towards Joey.  
  
"Everyone thinks that my brother is a spoiled brat, because he has control of this company, more money than he knows what to do with, and everything he could ever want. The truth is, Seto paid for all of this with his blood, his innocence, and his childhood. I had a good childhood, devoid of poverty and violence, because Seto sacrificed his. Gozaburo made Seto his heir, but it cost Seto dearly. Seto changed, became cold, reserved, and ruthless, because of Gozaburo." Mokuba stopped, a tear falling down his cheek. "He always protected me and made sure I had everything I needed, no matter what. When I found out how Gozaburo was 'training' Seto, I begged him to run away. I wanted us out of that house and away from the abuse he was getting. Seto was ten and I was five, and Seto pointed out that we would have nowhere to go, that living on the streets would slowly destroy us both, and that he'd rather give me as much normalcy as he could."  
  
Joey was speechless. He knew what living with an abusive father was like, because he'd done it all his life. He knew about the pain and humiliation that came with it, he'd just never thought about Kaiba having to live through the same thing. It seemed odd. Kaiba was always so controlled that Joey couldn't picture him being at anyone's mercy.  
  
"That's why I'm so protective of my brother, Joey. He gave up everything for me. No one knows, or cares to know, why he acts the way he does, but I know him and I'd do anything for him."  
  
Joey embraced the younger Kaiba and patted him gently on the back.  
  
"We'll deal with the son of a bitch, Mokuba. We're all in this together, and we won't give up."  
  
Mokuba tightened his arms around Joey, and then let go. He returned his attention to the computer and began to type again. Joey watched for a moment, feeling helpless because he wasn't doing anything.  
  
"What are you doing now?"  
  
"I'm revoking Seto's access. I'm programming the computer to notify me if Gozaburo tries to access any of the research labs here or at home. I'm locking him out of all the company files, too, so he can't screw up anything. I'm also locking out the two board members. Gozaburo can always get to them if he wants and get information through them."  
  
Mokuba paused, and then turned to Joey. The boy regarded him carefully, before nodding once, as if he'd decided something.  
  
"Put your palm on that screen, Joey," Mokuba instructed, pointing to the screen that had lit up in front of Joey.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"If anything happens to me, someone else has to have access to this computer, someone I trust to protect this information until Seto is returned to his body." Mokuba paused. "And if that doesn't happen, someone whom I can trust to come in here and destroy everything once Seto and I are both dead."  
  
Joey's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Mokuba, that's not going to happen."  
  
Mokuba shrugged. "It's a possibility, Joey. I don't want Gozaburo to use my brother's hard work if we can't stop him. I'm giving you access and am entrusting you to come in here and destroy all of the data on this computer if Seto and I are both killed. You'll be the only one other than me with access to our company, Joey, so you have to promise me that you'll do what I'm asking. "  
  
Joey swallowed. He hadn't thought about the possibility of both Kaiba brothers being seriously hurt or killed, and was surprised that an eleven year old had. Mokuba had been so methodical about everything so far and seemed very calm about the whole thing. Could he do it? If something happened to them, could he do what Mokuba asked? It didn't take long to come up with an answer to that. Yes, he could.  
  
"I promise, Mokuba," Joey said, put his right hand on the screen, and watched as his palm was scanned.  
  
"Now lay each of the fingers of that hand on the smaller screen on top."  
  
Joey did as he was told, and the machine scanned his fingerprints.  
  
"Now hold your face in front of the smaller screen to the left so it can scan your retina.  
  
Joey complied, blinking as a burst of light caught him off guard.  
  
"Please state your name," the computer prompted in an impersonal, female voice.  
  
Mokuba nodded for him to comply.  
  
"Joseph Wheeler."  
  
There was a momentary pause.  
  
"Welcome Joseph Wheeler. You have been accepted into the database."  
  
Mokuba smiled. "That's that. Here," he added, grabbing a small, plastic disc the machine had spit out. "This does the same thing that the cards Seto and I carry does," Mokuba said and handed the disc to Joey.  
  
Joey took the small disc and turned it over. It was so small that it fit on the tip of one finger. There was a microchip on the underside of it, with small, protruding rods.  
  
"It's self adhesive. Once you attach it to something, it's not going to come off. The microchip side goes down. You'll have to run it over the scanning mechanism for it to be authenticated."  
  
Nodding, Joey attached the disc to the back of the good luck charm he always wore around his neck. It had been a present from Serenity and he never took it off. He was going to be especially careful with it from now on. The disc fit perfectly, and unless you looked at the charm closely, you couldn't tell there was anything on it.  
  
"Good choice," Mokuba said. "No one will suspect there's anything there. That's all I can do from here. We should probably get out before someone sees us," Mokuba said and made his way out of the room.  
  
Joey followed, and prayed to every god he knew that they'd make it back to Ryou's house in one piece.  
  
**~~**  
  
And so concludes one more chapter. I hope that you all enjoyed it!  
  
Next up: Kaiba deals with a nice Pharaoh Yami (for real this time), Yami deals with a ticked off Priest Seto, Akunadin is not very nice to Yugi, and I think that's it. Gozaburo will probably have a few things to say about Mokuba cutting off his access, but we'll see about that. Until next time! 


	12. No Win Situation

Greetings!  
  
Sorry, sorry, sorry for the delay in posting this. Finals came up sooner than I thought, and I had to drop everything to study for those. I'm done for the semester, though, so hopefully I'll have more time to write.  
  
Note: In the Japanese version of the anime, the spirit of the puzzle has no name. That becomes a major plot point eventually, so it's important. Yugi refers to him as mou hitori no boku (other me), everyone else refers to him as mou hitori no Yugi (other Yugi), or Yugi, and the bad guys after episode 150 or so refer to him as namonaki pharaoh (nameless pharaoh). Forgive me if my Japanese spelling sucks. I'm only beginning to learn it. The point to this whole note is that I started writing when I'd only watched the American version of YGO, in which the spirit of the puzzle is given the name Yami. I started out using American names and haven't changed it. So, in this fic, there will be Pharaoh Yami (mainly because I didn't want to make up a name for him for the Egyptian scenes).  
  
Reviews:  
  
GN: The two Yamis and two Setos are getting hard to keep track of, but it has been a lot of fun so far. Thanks!  
  
Destiny (Lightning Sage): I'll start using Destiny, it's shorter (^__^). Thank you very much. I'm so glad that you're enjoying the story, and that it doesn't seem hopelessly confusing.  
  
Lizeth: Thanks for the kind words. I've read the Egyptian arc in the manga (what there is of it so far) and I haven't seen Seto and Yami as bitter enemies. Even in the anime, Ishizu tells Kaiba something about the priest and the pharaoh having been friends or something (subtitles are really bad), so I've never really seen them as enemies. Yeah, Seto is power hungry, but not all that bad. I'm glad that you like the way the story has been written.  
  
LorayT: Someone once said that Kaiba had the worst luck with fathers. He got Akunadin in his past life and Gozaburo (both class A psychos) in his current life. The boy just can't get a break. The dubbed version is okay. I don't entirely diss it, because I did start watching it first. There's just so much that gets taken out (smacks dubbers upside head). I do understand the need to do that, though. It's just a different audience. Don't apologize, since you weren't rambling at all. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Starheart (or Starheart's friend): Sorry to hear about what happened. I hope that her friend is doing better now. Thanks for reviewing for her, I appreciate it. And I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter too.  
  
Tainted Fortune: Sorry about the confusion. I tend to do that sometimes. I'm enjoying the Noa arc too, since it hasn't been as bad as I thought. Except for the whole death thing you mentioned. Makes me wonder how two kids end up at an orphanage if their parents just 'disappear'.  
  
SerafinaMoon: Gozaburo is Kaiba's dad, not Noa, but Noa is an important part, too. We don't find out who Noa is for another ten or so episodes (I think. I'm not sure what number they're on). It'll be good!  
  
Mittens no Hikari: *blushing* It was my pleasure, since I really enjoyed your story. I don't ever remember being totally sucked in by a romance story before, and I really liked it!  
  
Hobbit13: It's the Noa arc that tells people that Seto isn't really the ass he's been made out to be *hugs Seto plushie* Gozaburo is going to have a lot of fun with Mokuba and everyone else. I have a feeling I'm not going to be popular at the end of this chapter.  
  
Dee: Akunadin's been fun to play with. He's such a single minded man that it's easy to make him evil.  
  
Vappa: That's very nice of you to say! I had a grin on my face for the rest of the day when I read your reply. I'm glad that you liked this story too. They're both very different, but I do torture characters in both. I just decided I needed another victim, Kaiba, and this fic was born.  
  
Master Elora Dannan: I do love the plot twists. It keeps both you all and me from getting bored. As I said in the note at the beginning of the chapter, the pharaoh has no name. The Egyptian arc of the manga is all about finding the name (as well as the pharaoh recovering his memory), but since I use American names, I went with Yami. Yugioh would have worked as well.  
  
Tes and Krysta: Thanks for giving me the fic again! I bookmarked it this time and now that I finished school, I'll have time to actually read it. Thanks for the review, and I hope that you found the lost disk. I've lost stories before and it's annoying as hell, especially if you have to rewrite.  
  
Blue September: Thank you very much, especially for your comments on Yugi's grandfather and Yami. I love the old man for some reason and always include him in my fics. I think he's sweet, and I think Yami needs some love, so who better to give it? I've always liked Yugi and thought of him as a strong type, so I try to write him as such. I'll definitely keep in mind the yaoi aspect of it, too. There's still quite a bit of story to go through.  
  
Ieyre: Yeah, I liked the irony of the future persona meeting the past persona. There's more confusion that way :o)  
  
YumeTakato: Thanks! No one has given me a Mokuba plushie before *takes plushie and puts it next to Seto plushie* Kawaii! I'm glad you're enjoying the story!  
  
Katkid: You're back! Does this mean you'll update Jackknife 20 soon? (sorry, I get impatient sometimes. Besides, I'm not one to complain about not updating *hangs head in shame*) Gozaburo always finds ways to get around inconveniences. . . hee, hee. Oh, and as for Joey using the chip, as of right now, yes, he will use it. I just hope I don't forget to write that scene. Thanks!  
  
Nenya85: Mokuba is a cutie! I've always liked him, and like the opportunity to use him in this fic. I'm glad he's coming off well. I completely agree with you about the manga. It's so cool the way it's been written, and there's so much Seto angst. I think one of the latest ones has Seto finally finding out that Akunadin is his father. The poor boy. he never catches a break. Thanks for the thought on the yaoi aspect. It's been on my mind a lot lately, but I still haven't decided what to do. The decision will come, I'm sure. Thanks!  
  
Adrienne: Cool! How do you like the States so far? I've been here for most of my life, so I'm used to it. I had only watched YGO on the WB, but recently found it on CN too. That's pretty cool! You'll be able to catch up in no time. If you have CN, you should try some of the other anime they show. Inuyasha is pretty cool.  
  
The songfic pairing is Malik/Serenity, as requested. The song I picked is Matchbox 20's Unwell. The lyrics fit Malik very well. If you don't know the song, let me know and I'll find the lyrics for you. Speaking of Lord of the Rings, I'm a fan too. I can't wait until Return of the King opens on the 17th  
  
Mimiheart: Thank you very much! I'm happy that you're enjoying the story. Yeah, it is too bad that I don't own YGO. Imagine all the damage I could do if I had rights to it? *dreams about owning YGO and giving Kaiba a better personality, Yugi a little height, Tristan a better hairdo, Malik a better voice (in the dubbed version), and so on and so on*  
  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon: Thanks for the review!  
  
Cyberkat: Hey there! I'm glad you enjoyed the story, and hope you got some sleep.  
  
Mutou Yasu: I can definitely relate to the schoolwork problem. It sucks when it just seems to bury you. But I'm glad that you're all caught up. Thanks for the review.  
  
Sunrise: Thanks for the review!  
  
Adoring fan: Thanks for the brownies *chomps on one, yummy* I'm really glad that you're enjoying the story.  
  
___: This is not a typo, I just didn't have a name for this reviewer. Thank you very much. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Odd ideas seem to be my specialty, but it's good to know that they do come to have some sense of structure eventually.  
  
Moonlight Shadow: three cheers for home computers that work *YAY*. I'm a computer geek, so I am always messing with the ones I have at home. I hate it when they don't work.  
  
About the dub: Yeah, the 'enter the shadow realm' thing is really out of left field. I was like what the hell is that about? The stepfather thing I just don't get. It's incorrect. There's no way they can make that work, unless it has to do with the fact that Seto and Mokuba's parents didn't die, they disappeared, like there's hope for them to come back or something. Thanks for the definitions of 'manga' and 'anime'! I didn't know that's how they were defined, but it makes sense. What really bothered me, though, was the fact that they changed the fact that Seto refused to let Gozaburo use his virtual reality imaging program for war simulations. That scene with Seto and Gozaburo was my favorite, because it had Seto standing up for himself and his invention, and when Gozaburo refused to listen and had him dragged out of the room, had older Seto thinking that it was the last time he'd called Gozaburo 'father'. That was edited out, of course, which ticked me off. That was important for stuff that comes later, so who knows how they'll work that now. Despite that, though, the Noa arc has been the best dubbed one so far.  
  
Oops, now I'm the one that needs to apologize for rambling. So sorry!  
  
AG the master: Wow, thank you! I'm very glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Write Already: Yes, I know, I took too long in updating. Sorry! *hangs head in shame*  
  
Restlesspirit: *blushing* Thank you very much! I'm happy that you're enjoying the story.  
  
Kikoken: Wow. . . thank you very much for all your replies. I'm glad that you enjoyed the story. I do tend to write longer stories. . . I've tried to shorten them, but haven't been able to do it yet. Oh, and I'm glad I was able to get an emotional response. That's good for a writer to know. Thanks again!  
  
You all are an awesome group of readers/reviewers and definitely make this writing thing a lot more enjoyable. Thank you all.  
  
Now on to the chapter.  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 12: No Win Situation  
  
Yami stood twenty feet away from the entrance to the palace. The guards kept glancing at him as if they were worried that he was going to do something they weren't going to like. They were probably suspicious of the fact that he kept looking at the entrance, and since he was wearing a robe that covered every part of him, they had no idea who he looked like. The guards kept looking at Yuya and Neit as well, and the children were well aware of that. They kept a tight hold on Yami's hands.  
  
"Why haven't you entered the palace Pharaoh?" Yuya asked.  
  
"The guards keep looking at us funny," Neit added.  
  
"Pharaoh, what are you waiting for?"  
  
Yami looked down at Yuya, whose grey eyes were wide and inquisitive. He didn't know how to answer the boy's question. There was no reason for him to hesitate. All he had to do was lower his hood and walk into the palace. He had no doubt that the guards would let him in, but he didn't feel ready to enter yet.  
  
Instead of answering the boy's question, Yami studied his surroundings. Tents of various sizes housing a variety of vendors littered the open area in front of the palace. The market place was bustling with activity as people entered the tents to buy anything from food to articles of clothing. The merchants constantly chattered about their wares, hoping to attract someone's attention.  
  
Yami took it all in, submerged himself in the sights and sounds around him, and felt as if his senses were on overload. Suddenly, the sun was too bright; the voices were too loud. He took several deep breaths to calm his racing heart and unconsciously tightened his grip on the children's hands.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
The woman's voice cut through Yami's thoughts. He looked around and saw that a woman had been pushed and had landed on the floor, spilling the contents of her shopping bag. Fruits rolled on the dirty ground and were stepped on by passers by.  
  
"That's what you get for getting in my way."  
  
The man that had spoken raised his foot to strike the woman, but the sight broke Yami out of his paralysis. He let go of the children's hands and stepped in between the man and the woman.  
  
"Leave her alone," he said.  
  
"Stay out of business that doesn't concern you," the man replied.  
  
Yami's jaw tightened, but he didn't move away.  
  
"I told you to stay out of it," the man repeated.  
  
He lashed out at Yami, but Yami sidestepped the punch the much larger man threw. The man lost his balance when Yami moved out of the way, stumbled forward, and sent them both to the ground next to the woman. The man grunted as he landed, and Yami was grateful for his smaller size when he was able to roll out of the way.  
  
"Dear, Ra!" the woman beside Yami exclaimed.  
  
Her exclamation was followed by startled gasps from several of the bystanders, before a hush settled over the crowd.  
  
"Look, it's the pharaoh," someone shouted.  
  
Yami got to his feet and only then realized that his hood had fallen from his head, leaving his face and hair exposed. He looked around to find that everyone in the market place was staring at him.  
  
"Pharaoh, are you hurt?"  
  
One of the guards was now in front of him, his hand on his sword. Two other guards had exited the palace and now held the man that had attacked Yami.  
  
"I am fine," Yami replied, suddenly uncomfortable with all the attention he was getting.  
  
Yami turned to the woman who was clumsily picking up her belongings. She seemed rushed, as if she wanted to be out of there as soon as possible.  
  
"Are you alright?" he asked.  
  
The woman stood up and bowed.  
  
"I'm fine, my Pharaoh," she said, clutching the half empty bag to her chest.  
  
"Make sure that her merchandise is replaced," Yami told the guard who stood beside him. The man nodded and led the woman towards one of the tents.  
  
"Thank you, Pharaoh," she said before being led away.  
  
Yami smiled at her, before turning his attention to the guards. "What are you going to do with the man?" he asked, gesturing at the heavy man they held between them.  
  
"What is your wish, Pharaoh? Would you like us to execute him?" the guard replied. "We could have him taken to the dungeons as well."  
  
The man immediately paled. He struggled against the guards, but their grip on him was secure.  
  
"No, please!" he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you, I swear," he said to Yami. "I'm sorry."  
  
The guards yanked the man's arms to calm him down and looked expectantly at Yami.  
  
"Let him go," Yami said.  
  
The guards' eyes widened, and the man slumped in relief.  
  
"Keep his face in mind," Yami added. "If he comes to the marketplace again, have him taken to the dungeons."  
  
The guards bowed their heads, and then released the man. The man thanked Yami profusely for spearing his life, and then ran away from the marketplace..  
  
"Haven't I told you that it is dangerous to walk among the people without guards?"  
  
Yami turned at the sound of the familiar voice and was startled to see Seto Kaiba walking towards him, dressed in a white robe with rich, purple accents and golden jewels gracing his wrists, upper arms and ankles. The thing that most caught Yami by surprise, however, was that he was carrying the Millennium Rod. A flash from a dream entered his mind at that moment, and he knew who he was looking at.  
  
"High Priest, you have returned?"  
  
The priest ignored the guard that had spoken and instead gave Yami a concerned examination.  
  
"What's the matter, Pharaoh? Were you injured?" the priest asked when Yami didn't speak, his eyes narrowing slightly. For a split second, Yami thought he saw guilt in the priest's blue eyes. That was absurd, though. What did the priest have to feel guilty about?  
  
"Nothing is wrong," Yami replied as naturally as he could. The robe he wore hid his clothing, which was the only thing that would give him away. He didn't think he could afford to have the priest on his bad side. "I was just concluding my business."  
  
The priest turned to glare at the guards. "Yes, I saw what happened. What's the point of keeping guards if they don't their jobs? I should have you both executed for endangering the pharaoh's life," he said as he raised the Millennium Rod  
  
Yami put a restraining hand on the priest's arm. "That will not be necessary. Let us return to the palace."  
  
"Pharaoh, Pharaoh!"  
  
Yami turned towards the voice and saw Neit being carried off by a large man. He had one arm around her waist and the other was roaming over her chest. Yuya lay on the floor, his hand over his bleeding lips.  
  
"Help me!" Neit pleaded.  
  
"Put her down!" Yami roared.  
  
The man who was carrying Neit came to a halt. He looked around as if unsure of whether Yami was addressing him. Yami made a move towards him, but Priest Seto held him back.  
  
"What are you doing? Those children don't concern us," the priest said.  
  
Yami's eyes wandered down to Yuya. The little boy had gotten to his feet, but his face was bloody from where the man had backhanded him. In his time, if Seto Kaiba had seen his little brother being manhandled in any way, he would have already killed whoever had done it. Priest Seto seemed unconcerned, even annoyed that he was being bothered with the children.  
  
"They are under my protection, Seto," Yami said, remembering not to address the man as Kaiba. He shrugged off the restraining arm and walked towards Neit, who was still in the man's arms.  
  
"I asked you to let her go."  
  
The man audibly gulped and dropped the little girl. She fell on her back, crying out as she hit the ground. She quickly got to her feet and rushed over to Yuya.  
  
"Where were you going with her?" Yami asked, anger flowing through his body. He had an idea of what the man had been about to do and it sickened him. He didn't see Neit as the girl she was in this era, he saw her as Yugi's friend Rebecca, which enhanced his anger and repulsion. "I wasn't going anywhere, Pharaoh," the man lied.  
  
"You are now. Guards, take him to the dungeon."  
  
Yami ignored the cries from the man as he was apprehended and dragged towards the palace. Instead, he went to Neit and Yuya.  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
Neit nodded, tears falling down her cheeks. Yuya nodded as well. "We're okay, Pharaoh. Thank you," Neit said.  
  
"Can you see to it that he gets the proper treatment for that injury?" Yami asked the priest, who had come to stand beside him.  
  
"Why?" Seto asked.  
  
Yami turned to the man, surprised at the cold demeanor. Granted, Kaiba wasn't a friendly person either, but the priest seemed so much more detached from humanity than Kaiba was.  
  
"They're children and were under my protection," Yami replied, using his best commanding tone.  
  
Priest Seto shrugged. He walked up to Mokuba Kaiba's double and held his right hand a few inches away from the boy's bleeding lips. Yuya's eyes widened at the priest's approach, but Neit kept him from running away. Both of the children looked at Yami, and he nodded, reassuring them that everything was fine. The priest's hand began to glow, until Yuya's entire face was covered in a soft, golden light. When the light faded, Yuya's face was without injury.  
  
"There," the priest said. "Is that what you wanted?"  
  
Yami nodded.  
  
"Great. I am going to my room to change. I suggest you do the same, since you have a meeting with your priests in an hour," Seto said. "I would not advise you to attend dressed that way."  
  
With that, the priest turned on his heel and left.  
  
"He's weird," Yuya muttered. "He's so cold."  
  
"Hush," Neit admonished. "He's the pharaoh's high priest. You don't want to offend the pharaoh, do you?"  
  
Yami turned to the children, who immediately shut up.  
  
"Come, children. I suggest we go inside the palace and away from any more mishaps."  
  
**~~**  
  
Yugi was cold.  
  
He had woken up lying on the stone ground, his hands bound to the wall by heavy chains. There was enough play in the chains to allow him to stand up and move around slightly, but nothing more. He was blindfolded and had no idea where he was. He didn't remember how he got to where he was. He remembered talking to the high priest, but didn't remember anything after that. Had the priest brought him here? The man had mentioned that he thought Yugi was a spy for another kingdom, so it was possible. Why would the priest blindfold him, though?  
  
Yugi shook his head and realized that he wasn't blindfolded. A piece of cloth had been wrapped around his entire head, not just his eyes. It rubbed against his jaw and cheeks as he moved. Holes must have been cut into the cloth, because he wasn't having difficulty breathing. He didn't know how long he'd been there, but no one had come to see him or talk to him. He had tried to slip the manacles off his wrists, but had only managed to rub the skin to the point where it burned any time he moved his hands. He had tried to pull the chains out of the wall too, with no success.  
  
"If there's anyone there, speak up. What do you want with me?" Yugi yelled, tired of sitting in silence. "Damn you, speak up!"  
  
Nothing greeted him except for silence. He sighed and slumped against the equally cold wall.  
  
"What's the deal, don't these people believe in heaters?" he muttered to himself, and then laughed. "Of course they don't, they don't have them yet."  
  
He paced as far as the chains would let him. He felt edgy, and he didn't think it was just because of his predicament. Something was happening. He felt it like a ghostly wind on his skin. He felt urgency, like he didn't have time to waste waiting around for someone to come talk to him. He had to find Yami and Kaiba and get back to his time before. . .  
  
"Before what?" he asked himself. "We were at Ryou's house, right? What could possibly be happening there?"  
  
The sound of footsteps distracted him, and he turned in the direction of the sound. The footfalls were light, as if whoever it was wore no shoes. He cocked his head in that direction, waiting for more footfalls.  
  
"Good to see you're finally awake."  
  
The voice was rough, as if the vocal chords had become tired over time. Yugi didn't recognize it. It certainly wasn't the voice of Priest Seto.  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
Yugi heard the jingle of keys, then the sounds of a door being opened.  
  
"You are going to help me make my son pharaoh," the man said, inches away from Yugi.  
  
The sudden closeness startled Yugi, and he took an involuntary step back. The man grabbed the front of Yugi's coat and pulled him close. Yugi couldn't see a thing, which only served to add to his fear.  
  
"I'm not going to help you do anything," Yugi said, his voice shaky.  
  
The man laughed. He pulled the cloth off of Yugi's head, ripping some of his hair off in the process. Yugi closed his eyes at the sudden brightness, and then opened them to see an older man grinning down at him. The man was not familiar to Yugi, but the Millennium Eye he wore was. Visions of Pegasus entered Yugi's mind, and he shook them off. He pulled away from the man's grasp, but he only held on to Yugi tighter.  
  
"You happen to look just like my dear nephew the pharaoh," the man said.  
  
He traced Yugi's features with his free hand, nodding appreciatively every now and then. Yugi's eyes widened. This was Yami's uncle? Why would he want to do something to Yami, and who was the man's son?  
  
"There are slight differences, but I can fix those. Once I get Yami out of the way and put you in his place, my son will control the throne."  
  
Yugi shook his head. "I won't help you hurt Yami. I don't care who your son is, I won't help you."  
  
The man laughed, his Millennium Eye glowing. "I don't need you to help me, little boy. I just need your body. As far as my son is concerned, you already know him. He brought you here."  
  
Yugi frowned, confused more than afraid. Who had brought him here? His eyes widened as realization struck. "The high priest is your son? He's Yami's cousin?"  
  
The old man laughed. "That's of no consequence to you, little one. Now be still and let my eye do its work."  
  
The Millennium Eye began to glow, and Yugi panicked. It extracted souls from bodies; he'd seen Pegasus use it to take his grandfather's soul, and Seto Kaiba's soul. If he didn't do something now, he was going to lose his soul, and Yami would get hurt. Yugi struggled against the older man's grip, but couldn't break free. He didn't give up, though. There had to be something he could do.  
  
**~~**  
  
Seto Kaiba woke to the sound of soft humming. He opened his eyes and let them wander around the lavishly decorated room. His predicament came back to him in a rush, and he sat up on the bed, expecting his head to start throbbing again. To his surprise, his head didn't hurt. In fact, he felt better than he had in a long time. The humming caught his attention again and he followed it to the balcony, where Pharaoh Yami stood staring at the rest of the palace below him. Kaiba cleared his throat, unsure of what else to do. Pharaoh Yami turned around, startled.  
  
"Seto, you're awake. I am sorry if my humming woke you. I tend to do that when I'm anxious," Pharaoh Yami said.  
  
Kaiba stood next to the pharaoh, his eyes widening at the site below him. The palace was extensive. The pharaoh's chamber was on the northern side of the property, and from where they stood, they could see almost the entire thing. It was a breathtaking sight.  
  
"What are you anxious about, Pharaoh?" Kaiba asked.  
  
Pharaoh Yami turned to him, his expression one of surprise.  
  
"Pharaoh? You usually only call me that when it's absolutely necessary, Seto. Why the formality now?"  
  
Kaiba shrugged. "Isn't that what I'm supposed to call you?"  
  
Pharaoh Yami laughed, his whole face lighting up in merriment. Kaiba found the sight somewhat disconcerting, since he'd never seen Yami laugh.  
  
"As my high priest, you are supposed to address me as pharaoh when we're carrying out our duties. As my oldest friend, you always scoffed at the necessary formality and used it only when necessary. That's why I'm surprised now."  
  
Kaiba inwardly winced at his mistake. He couldn't afford to draw extra attention to himself.  
  
"Maybe it's the head injury."  
  
Yami frowned and touched the injured area gingerly, while examining Kaiba's face.  
  
"The injury has healed, but perhaps you are correct. Come, let me get you something to replenish the strength the healing spell took from you."  
  
Pharaoh Yami led him back into the room he'd been in, then out to another, smaller, one with a table facing another balcony. Pharaoh Yami sat him at the table, and then came back with a tray full of fruit and a goblet of wine and another of water.  
  
"I had them bring this up for when you woke up. Eat and regain your strength."  
  
Kaiba stared at the offered food, unsure what to make of the situation. Apparently, Pharaoh Yami and Priest Seto were old friends and got along rather well. It was odd for Yami to be treating him like a friend, but it seemed natural to the pharaoh. If he were to respond in any other way, refuse the offered food, Pharaoh Yami would know something was wrong, so Kaiba took a breath, smiled slightly, and picked up a few grapes. He chewed on them carefully.  
  
"Thank you, Yami. I'm sure the food will help. Would you like to join me?"  
  
The pharaoh nodded and sat down on the other side of the table. He, too, picked up some grapes and munched on them.  
  
"So, Seto, tell me about your pilgrimage. What did you learn while you were away?"  
  
Kaiba's heart immediately sped up. What the hell was he supposed to say?  
  
"Pharaoh, your meeting will begin shortly. It would be best to head down to the throne room."  
  
Kaiba sighed at the interruption. Pharaoh Yami nodded to the woman, dismissing her.  
  
"Yes, the meeting. You should change into more suitable clothes for the meeting, Seto. It would not be wise to attend dressed like that."  
  
Kaiba looked down at his clothing, and then at Yami's. Yes, he did look very out of place, but he wasn't about to get into one of those robes people around here seemed to wear.  
  
"I'll see you in the throne room after you change, Seto," Yami said as he made his way out of the room. When he got to the door, he stopped. "It is good to have you back," he said, and then left.  
  
Kaiba slumped against the table, his heart still pounding in his chest. What was he going to do? He couldn't really attend that meeting, could he? He sighed and got up. Maybe if he just wandered around the castle, he could feign ignorance later about the meeting. How important could his role in it be, anyway? It wasn't as if the priest made many decisions, right?  
  
Convinced, Kaiba left the room and aimlessly wandered the palace. Everyone he ran into immediately averted their eyes or bowed respectfully, but he ignored them. He had to figure out a way to find Yami and Yugi and then get out of the palace before something happened.  
  
He came to the end of a hallway and found himself in front of a heavy, stone door. Curious, he opened it and saw a staircase descending into darkness. He poked his head inside, shivering at the cold that hit him. There couldn't be anything useful down there. He was about to close the door, when a scream stopped him. He cocked his head, listening as it came a second time. He stiffened when he recognized the voice.  
  
"Yugi!"  
  
**~~**  
  
Joey and Mokuba made it back to Ryou's house with no difficulty. Joey ushered Mokuba inside and locked the door behind him. When he turned around, he halted in his tracks. Beside him, Mokuba gasped.  
  
"Oh, my God, Gozaburo found us."  
  
The living room was a disaster. Furniture was overturned; frames and priceless Egyptian artifacts lay shattered on the floor. In the midst of the destruction, Ryou Bakura lay, motionless. He was on his stomach, so Joey couldn't see his face. He ran over to Ryou and gingerly turned him over. Ryou's face was bruised and bloodied, his white hair matted with dry blood.  
  
"How could this happen? We weren't gone that long," Joey whispered as he looked for Ryou's pulse.  
  
Mokuba's voice shook when he replied. "They must have come right after we left, Joey. Gozaburo tracked us somehow."  
  
"Ryou, hey, buddy, wake up," Joey whispered to his friend, but got no response.  
  
"His ring is gone, Joey."  
  
Joey felt around Ryou's neck, and sure enough, the Millennium Ring was no where to be found. A thought suddenly hit him.  
  
"The puzzle. Yugi!"  
  
He stood up and headed up the stairs at a run, leaving Mokuba behind with Ryou.  
  
'Please be okay, Yugi, please be okay," Joey thought to himself as he took the stairs two at a time. How had Gozaburo and his men tracked them to Ryou's house? When had they gotten here?  
  
Joey pushed open the door to Ryou's room, where they'd lay Yugi, and stopped. Mr. Moto lay on the floor, on his back, unconscious. The old man was pale, but breathing. He looked at Ryou's bed, and his heart fell when he saw that it was empty. He went over to Mr. Moto and gently shook him.  
  
"Gramps, wake up. We need to know what happened, Gramps."  
  
The old man did not stir. Joey couldn't find any signs of injury on Mr. Moto, but something had to have happened. He laid the elder Moto on the bed where they'd left Yugi, and looked around the room for his friend. He found nothing. He looked through the other upstairs rooms as well, but came up empty handed. Joey ran down the stairs with the intention of doing the same thing there, when the sight of Mokuba standing in the living room, holding a sheet of paper stopped him.  
  
"You thought you could beat me, you little brat, but you were wrong," Mokuba read out loud. "You're smart and resourceful, but so am I. Remember who taught you everything you know. You didn't cut off my access soon enough, little Mokuba." Mokuba paused and looked at Joey, his eyes full of tears, before resuming his reading. "I have the Moto boy, along with his Millennium Puzzle and the white haired boy's Millennium Ring. They won't need those any longer. If you don't want me to destroy the puzzle, and your brother in the process, restore my access at Kaiba Corp. You have forty eight hours, Mokuba."  
  
Joey suddenly felt his strength leave him. He sank to the floor and put his head on his knees. What else could they do? How could they beat someone who had more resources than they did?  
  
"I'm not restoring his access," Mokuba said.  
  
Joey snapped out of his thoughts at the statement.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
Mokuba crumpled the letter and threw it at the bookcase. "I won't let him destroy my brother's company. Seto would do the same thing."  
  
Joey got off the floor and walked to the younger Kaiba. "It's not just your brother on the line if Gozaburo destroys the puzzle, Mokuba. Yami and Yugi are in there too, remember? If Gozaburo breaks the puzzle, there'll be no one to put it back together."  
  
Mokuba's eyes narrowed, but he shook his head. "I'm not doing it, Joey. I'm sorry, but their lives are worth it."  
  
Joey was speechless. "What the hell are you talking about, Mokuba? You don't know what you're saying!"  
  
"Just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I'm stupid. Gozaburo can go to hell for all I care. I'm not restoring his access," Mokuba said, and before Joey could do anything to stop him, left the house.  
  
Joey stared after him, confused and angry. What right did Mokuba have deciding the fate of three people on his own? The kid had gone nuts. Joey shook his head and sat on the floor beside Ryou.  
  
"Now what?"  
  
**~~**  
  
Don't hate me too much, but you can hate me a little if you want :o). Next up: Kaiba finds Yugi. Gozaburo realizes something about Yugi. More stuff, but I can't think of anything else at the moment. 


	13. Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Greetings and Happy New Year!!  
  
I hope that you all had a good holiday season and got some good stuff for Christmas. I did (gotta love friends that not only understand but fuel my anime obsession), so I was a happy camper.  
  
Oh, by the way: Thanks to those of you who reviewed Last Goodbye. I'm very grateful. I think I'm going to continue it, as nervous as that makes me, so I'll reply to your reviews properly when I post the second chapter. I just wanted to say a quick thank you here.  
  
Reviews:  
  
Dee: Yeah, dubbing pretty much sucks, so their lack of originality doesn't surprise me. Thank goodness for original Japanese episodes, even if they have crappy subtitles, though the later episodes have pretty decent ones. Having all the doubles around is confusing even me, so I understand! I hope it doesn't get too bad. Too bad I can't draw, or I'd draw something to try to get across what I'm picturing in my head. Sadly, my drawing talent only extends to stick figures.  
  
Mimiheart: Okay, as long as you don't totally hate me, it's okay!  
  
AG the master: Sorry for the delay, but here's the next one.  
  
Kikoken: Yup, they get thrown back in time before the stuff with Bakura takes place (if you've read the manga) I thought it'd be interesting to mess around with both the originals and the reincarnations. and poor Yugi stuck in the middle. Sorry about the cliffhangers. . . blame my muse for those, because it's all his fault *bops muse upside head for being evil to the nice reviewers* Hope you like this chapter and I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Lizeth: Pharaoh Yami is yummy, isn't he? Most people hate it, but I happen to think that Yami's American voice is sexy (not as sexy as Kaiba's, of course, and no where near as sexy as Kaiba's Japanese voice, but still sexy) so I can picture him humming. Ohh, if you draw Pharaoh Yami, I want to see!! I was just telling Dee that I can't draw anything other than stick figures, so I'd love to see what you come up with. You'll get the answer to your question at the end of this chapter. Enjoy!  
  
GN: You are absolutely right, the possibilities are endless. You know me and Yugi, always putting the boy in some sort of danger. What's an authoress to do, though?  
  
Mittens no Hikari: Mokuba is having a crisis. . . he wants to be like his brother so badly that he doesn't know what to do. YAY! *taking bow as instructed* I'm so happy that you can follow it. Sometimes I wonder if it's getting too complicated (because I get confused sometimes), and I'm glad to know that it's not. The puppy dog eyes would have worked, if the holidays hadn't gotten in the way!  
  
Nenya85: I agree with you. I'm not exactly sure why they made Mokuba so childish in the dub, as it serves no real purpose. I love how he conducts himself in the Japanese anime and the manga, and I try to write him that way. Priest Seto is a very interesting character. He's power hungry, and yet not ruthless. What always caught my attention about it was that he was never blatantly against Yami. Yeah, he wanted the power, but he valued their friendship more. I try to get him somewhere in the middle, where Akunadin is succeeding in brainwashing him, while still being tied to Yami's friendship. And the look of guilt you mentioned was because he'd been thinking about what he'd do if he were pharaoh and how he'd be a better one. In this story, he's torn between his desire for the throne, and his friendship with Yami. About the dub: Kaiba's guilt about his inventions fuels so many of his actions at that point that it was a bad thing to take it out *again grumbles about dubbers*. ARG! But until I learn Japanese and can watch the DVDs with no subtitles, I'll keep watching the dub.  
  
Aura Black Chan: Wow, what a cool review! It sounds like something I would say in a review. I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Yeah, everyone is getting beat up at the moment, but they'll have to get better eventually, right?  
  
Hobbit13: Of course you can forgive me! Who else would give me cookies? *looks at rest of reviewers hopefully*. Yami is going to throw a fit when he finds out what's going on right under his nose, and the Seto isn't going to fare very well either. Oh, yeah, Bakura is going to have a field day once. . . well, that's for later on in the story. Thanks!  
  
Lighting Sage: Mokuba can be tough when he wants to be. Think of it as taking up the reigns for his brother. After all, what would Kaiba do?  
  
Adrienne: Did you go see Return of the King? I went the second day it was out and was in the theater until 2 am. That was one LONG movie. But it was well worth it!! In what part of the US do you live (if you don't mind my asking)? If you live up north, it does get pretty cold. I live down south and it was rather warm today (75 degrees in January is just disgusting). Rest assured that Kano won't be making an appearance in this story. I'm still trying to clean up the Kano plushie from when you had it. Yup, Isis was one of the priests. I don't know if she'll get a part or not. I'm still plotting out the Egyptian storyline so am not entirely sure who'll participate. There'll be surprisingly few arguments, because the future guys know that they're out of their element and will defer to their counterparts. Well, unless you count the fight at the end of this chapter. . . oops, I've said too much now. *goes off to find muse and bop him on the head just because*  
  
Vappa: You'd be surprised how effective bops to the head can be. I'm sure Kaiba's got one of those in his arsenal. Thanks!  
  
LorayT: Thanks! I like being forgiven. . . even when I go and do it again. Sorry. . . Yeah, poor Mokuba has definitely been raised by Seto, so a lot of him has rubbed off on the kid.  
  
Sunrise: Don't worry about it. I hope your school work went well. Thanks for the candy canes. I still have some leftover!  
  
Yami Rose: Thank you very much for the review. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Samhain13: Thanks!  
  
SerafinaMoon: You want more Yugi torture? I can definitely do that *watches as Yugi runs off screaming* I hope your finals went well. Mine went very well and I was very happy with my grades. I start back in a week, though, that's not good.  
  
Mutou Yasu: I think this chapter might explain Mokuba's reasoning a little better. He's trying to do what his brother would do, and we all know how skewed Kaiba's sense of duty is so anything is possible.  
  
Katkid: It's my muse's fault. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. He loves to torture you guys. I'm glad to know there will be more Jackknife 20. I was beginning to think you'd gone away and were going to leave the story unfinished *bites fingernails in anticipation of next chapter* It's an awesome story and should be finished (hint, hint), but at the same time, it really is hard to get time to write, especially something as good and involved as what you're doing, so I understand. *sends waves of good thoughts and wishes to stimulate creativity*  
  
Sera: Thanks for letting me know about Yami's real name! I hadn't checked yet, but right after you told me, I went to investigate. It's a fitting name, and it puts his reign in perspective for me. It's really going to help with this story too. Not that I'll use the name (I'm sticking with Yami), but at least I'll know what Egyptian dynasty to use when writing. I haven't read that manga chapter yet, but am eagerly awaiting it. So who ended up finding it? Was it Yugi-tachi? The last manga chapter I read had Yugi-tachi talking to Hasan, so I'm not sure how behind I am.  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Thanks for the offer! Sera told me the name in a previews review, and I checked it out myself too. It's a good name, though I'll always think of him as Yami. I wonder how they'll handle that in the dub, since he's always had a name in that version. Yup, they're all there with their doubles, except Yugi, of course. He's the one that'll cause the most confusion, because they won't know how to explain him. Poor Yugi. Thanks for the review!  
  
Deranged black kitten of doom: Have I ever mentioned that I liked your name? Very cool! I hope the wait wasn't too long.  
  
Write Already: Oops. I went a little too much over time, didn't I? It was the holidays that got in the way. I had absolutely no time to write. Writer's block does suck, as I'm currently suffering from it on my other fic. I have nothing against Seto/Yami pairings. I prefer Seto/Yugi pairings, but I can go for either one. If you want to e-mail me with some ideas that you might have, I'll be happy to help you get something worked out. At least enough to maybe get you started on a fic. My e-mail address is amunraprincess@yahoo.com  
  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon: Yup, this is definitely turning out to be somewhat of a mess. Stay tuned.  
  
Moonlight Shadow: Yeah, can you imagine Kaiba willingly getting into one of those robes? It'd be funny if he somehow had to do it. Hmm. . . brain is working, brain is working. . .  
  
Adoring fan: Hey! I'm doing good, how about yourself? Did you have a good holiday? Thanks for the review, and I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
Restlesspirit: Thank you for reviewing. I'm glad you're enjoying the story!  
  
Whew! I know I say this all the time, but it's worth mentioning again: You guys rock! Thank you!  
  
**~~**  
  
Chapter 13: Double, Double Toil and Trouble  
  
"I'm not restoring his access. . ."  
  
"I won't let him destroy my brother's company."  
  
"I'm not doing it, Joey. I'm sorry, but their lives are worth it."  
  
Mokuba put his hands over his ears, hoping to drown out the sound of his own voice. He had been certain of his decision to let Gozaburo destroy the Millennium Puzzle, and the souls of his brother, Yugi, and Yami, when he had voiced it to Joey, but now he wasn't so sure. Could he let his brother die at the hands of their resurrected adoptive father just like that? Was the company really more important than Seto's life? Could he send Yugi to his death and condemn Yami to millennia more in darkness and solitude inside the broken pieces of the Millennium Puzzle?  
  
He'd been walking aimlessly for the last half hour, trying to forget the look of betrayal on Joey's face. He found himself close to the beaches, which suited him just fine. Maybe if he sat by the ocean for a while, it would help calm his raging emotions.  
  
Once he'd made it to the beach, he sat on the sand, just barely out of reach of the water. He looked around at the other people that crowded the beach. Some were sunning, while others were playing volleyball or building sand castles. Mokuba smiled wistfully, remembering when he and his brother used to come to this same beach to build sand castles. They would sneak out of the orphanage, and Seto always managed to get them back before they got caught. When Gozaburo adopted them, they stopped coming to the beach. Mokuba felt out of place among the happy people, but was too tired to get up and find another spot. A volleyball suddenly came towards him, and Mokuba barely managed to get out of the way. The ball landed with a loud thud and a splash of sand, leaving a deep depression in the sand.  
  
"Oops! I'm so sorry."  
  
Mokuba looked up to see a beautiful, young lady in a bikini come after the ball. She gave him a brilliant smile as she retrieved the ball.  
  
"I need to learn to aim better," she said, laughing. She examined him a bit. "Are you okay? You look really tired."  
  
Mokuba frowned at the question. Why would she care how he looked?  
  
"Sorry, I don't mean to butt in. I just figured that a young kid like you should look vibrant, happy. I'm sorry about the ball, too. It won't happen again."  
  
She gave him another smile and a wave, before she returned to the game he hadn't even noticed was going on a few feet away from him.  
  
Sighing, Mokuba turned his attention back to the ocean. The waves had filled the depression where the ball had landed, and Mokuba found himself sitting next to a small puddle, its surface calm and undisturbed. He looked down at it, and saw his reflection in the water. The girl was right, he did look tired. He also looked like a small, frightened child. He had always wanted to be like his brother, strong and determined, but he had no hope of doing that if he couldn't even stick to a decision he'd already made. Seto had never had that problem. When he'd wanted something, he'd simply done what it took to attain it. Unbidden, a memory came into Mokuba's mind. A memory that always made him proud to be Seto's brother, but ashamed that he couldn't be more like him.  
  
****  
  
"This is it, Mokuba," Seto said as he stood in the middle of his office. "Gozaburo is gone, we're finally free."  
  
Mokuba grinned at his big brother. He hadn't been overly sad when he'd been told of Gozaburo's death. After all, the man had deserved nothing less than what he got. Now that Seto had control of the company, he could finally work on that amusement park he wanted.  
  
"What are we going to do now, big brother?" Mokuba asked his thirteen-year- old brother.  
  
Seto gave Mokuba one of his rare smiles. "We're going to build the best games in the world, Mokuba! Just wait, before long, Kaiba Corporation will be known for the games it makes, not for the war machines it used to make. I guarantee it!"  
  
Mokuba smiled right along with his brother. He had no doubt that Seto would do exactly as he said.  
  
****  
  
It had cost Seto a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of hard work to stop Kaiba Corporation's manufacture of weapons. He'd been criticized not only for the direction he was taking the company in, but also for his age. He'd had to work very hard to earn the respect of the Kaiba Corporation employees and executives, along with the rest of the business community. It hadn't been easy, but Seto had never given up. His brother had always told him that if anything happened, it would be his responsibility to carry on with the company, and Mokuba had always thought he'd be ready when the time came. Today proved that he wasn't ready.  
  
Disgusted with himself, Mokuba got up and ran away from the crowds, to a more secluded place behind some boulders.  
  
"What would Seto do?" Mokuba asked himself yet again. "If he were here right now, what would he do?"  
  
The answer was simple. He'd choose the company over himself. He'd told Mokuba that many times, and it was now Mokuba's turn to honor that promise.  
  
"I love you, big brother," Mokuba whispered to no one in particular, tears running down his face. "I'm doing this because you would want me to."  
  
Mokuba paused for a moment and wiped his cheeks. "I'm sorry Yugi and Yami. You two are just innocent bystanders in all of this. I'm sorry you had to get involved."  
  
Mokuba dropped to his knees in the sand and wept.  
  
**~~**  
  
Joey fingered the small disc Mokuba had given him, the one that gave him access to Kaiba Corporation. He had the power to restore Gozaburo Kaiba's access to the company and keep the puzzle from being shattered. Mokuba had told him that with that disc, he could access any part of the mainframe, so it would be a simple thing to go back and undo what Mokuba had done, right? Joey sighed. He didn't have the slightest idea how to do that.  
  
A moan pulled him out of his thoughts, and Joey turned to see that Ryou was stirring. He'd carried the teen upstairs to the room where Mr. Bakura usually slept, because Mr. Moto was currently occupying Ryou's room. Joey had cleaned Ryou's face to find only bruises. A cut above his right eye had bled profusely and covered the rest of his face, making the injury look worse than it was. A knock to the back of the head, however, had knocked him unconscious. That cut had bled too, staining most of Ryou's hair red. Joey hadn't taken the time to wash the hair, but he had bandaged both cuts.  
  
The teen tossed and turned slightly, his hands fisting around the comforter. Joey put his hand on Ryou's shoulder to calm him, and Ryou's hand immediately clamped over his wrist.  
  
"It's okay, Ryou, they're gone," Joey said.  
  
Ryou shook his head a bit, before opening his eyes. They were unfocused at first, but slowly he seemed to regain his focus and realize that he was with Joey. He blinked several times, and winced as he moved his head.  
  
"What happened?" Ryou asked as he looked around the room. "Why am I in my father's room? What's going on?"  
  
Joey's stomach clenched at the look of confusion on Ryou's face. "You don't know what happened?"  
  
Ryou once again focused on Joey. "No. I feel lousy, though. What is wrong with me?" He lifted the hand that wasn't gripping Joey's wrist and brought it up to his head to touch the bandage above his eye.  
  
"What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
Ryou frowned, concentrating. "There was something wrong with Yugi," he finally said. "Kaiba attacked him," Ryou said with more conviction. "I told you to bring him here. Is he okay? Did Kaiba find him here?"  
  
Joey closed his eyes and let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "You could say that," Joey finally replied.  
  
Ryou released Joey's wrist and the hand dropped to his chest. He felt there for a moment, before looking at Joey again, panic replacing the confusion in his eyes.  
  
"Where is my ring, Joey? What happened to it?"  
  
Joey sighed. "That's a long story."  
  
Ryou's hand dropped limply to his side. "I'm not going anywhere."  
  
**~~**  
  
"There, that will do nicely."  
  
Gozaburo snapped the cuff closed and stood up to admire his handiwork.  
  
He had brought Yugi Moto to Seto's old room, figuring that the staff was less likely to come in here and inadvertently find the boy. He'd placed the boy on the bed and secured his hands to the headboard with a pair of handcuffs so that if the boy awoke while he was gone, he wouldn't be tempted to run away. In his hand he held the Millennium Puzzle. He wanted to experiment with it, see what he could do with it. On the bed beside Yugi lay the Millennium Ring. Smiling, Gozaburo picked that up too.  
  
It had been a simple matter to track down the car Mokuba and the others had taken when they'd left the mansion. The police had found it at the Bakura residence and notified him. He'd told them that he would handle the matter himself, and they'd left him alone to do so. He had ordered the men not to kill the white haired boy or the old man, and had seen to Yugi himself. He had been disappointed when he hadn't found Mokuba, but he'd left the brat a little present. He wanted Yugi because he was the owner of the Millennium Puzzle, and because said puzzle contained the soul of Seto Kaiba. The puzzle held endless possibilities, and he was not about to let them slip through his fingers. The boy had been unconscious and had not woken up at all on the way back to the mansion. Gozaburo found that strange.  
  
"Hey, kid, wake up," Gozaburo said, shaking Yugi none too gently. "You and I have some things to discuss."  
  
The kid did not stir.  
  
"This is not amusing. You will wake up."  
  
Gozaburo backhanded the boy, strong enough to draw blood from both his nose and his lip, but they boy still did not stir. What was going on? What was wrong with the kid? Gozaburo lifted the boy's head and peeled back an eyelid to see a perfectly responsive pupil. The body was silent. It was as if whatever animated the body, the boy's soul, wasn't in the body at all.  
  
Frowning, Gozaburo held up the Millennium Puzzle.  
  
"Could you be in here, kid, with the rest of your companions?" he asked the golden object.  
  
Sighing, Gozaburo left the bed. "No matter, you are my guest for the time being. If you decide to wake up, you're not going anywhere."  
  
**~~**  
  
Seto Kaiba took the slippery steps three at a time, barely staying on his feet as he descended down the darkened passage way. Up ahead, Yugi's screams had gotten louder and more desperate. He cringed every time Yugi screamed, because it felt as if something inside him was being hurt too. Suddenly, he remembered the mind like Yugi said they had. It must have activated again with their close proximity to each other. He must be feeling Yugi's pain.  
  
As he got closer, Kaiba heard a man's laughter.  
  
"That's it, boy; scream all you want, because soon, you'll be just a shell. Your body will be mine to control and do with as I please. The Pharaoh won't know what hit him once you're under my control."  
  
Kaiba clenched his jaw at the man's cold certainty. He skidded as he hit the bottom, but could see a glowing, yellow light to his left. He ran forward, not knowing what he was going to do once he got there. After a moment, he realized that he was in the dungeons. Cells surrounded him on all sides, all empty. All, that is, except the one Yugi was in. As Kaiba reached it, he saw Yugi on his knees, the Millennium Puzzle glowing brightly on his chest. An old man stood before Yugi, his hands on Yugi's head, with something glowing on his eye. As Kaiba looked closer, he realized that he was looking at the Millennium Eye. Shuddering as memories of Pegasus surfaced in his mind, Kaiba came to a stop in front of the open cell. Without thinking, he got in between Yugi and the man, pushing them both away from each other. He felt a momentary shock as the eye's energy hit him, and the Millennium Puzzle around his own neck glowed in response. Whatever energy hit him was quickly dispersed, and Kaiba turned his attention to Yugi.  
  
The boy was on the ground on all fours, panting. Kaiba could see his entire body shaking and wondered what the old man had done to him. He reached out to Yugi and as soon as his hands touched Yugi's shoulders, a white hot lance of agony raced through him. His head felt as if it would split open, and he could feel his body trembling in time with Yugi's.  
  
Quickly, and more violently than he'd intended, Kaiba pushed Yugi away. Yugi landed on his side against the back wall of the cell, having been pulled back by the shackles around his wrists. The mind link had been intensified when they'd touched, to the point that for a moment, Kaiba hadn't been able to separate himself from Yugi.  
  
"Seto, what are you doing?"  
  
The old man's voice drew Kaiba out of his thoughts and he turned to see that the man was on his feet, looking at him with a mixture of confusion and betrayal.  
  
Kaiba ignored him. Instead, he went to Yugi's side. He picked up Yugi's wrists, being sure to touch the metal shackles, not the skin, and saw that he needed a key to open them.  
  
"Release him!" Kaiba shouted at the man.  
  
"Why did you get in my way, Seto? You knew what I was planning to do. This is for your own good, I already told you that."  
  
Kaiba frowned. What was the man talking about? Why was he saying that to him? It suddenly dawned on him that the man thought he was the High Priest.  
  
"Please," Yugi whispered without looking at him. "If you ever had any loyalty for the pharaoh, High Priest, please don't go along with this. Yami doesn't deserve your betrayal."  
  
'Yugi is confusing me with the High Priest too," Kaiba thought.  
  
"It's me, Seto Kaiba, not the priest," he said to Yugi.  
  
Yugi's eyes opened then, widening when he noticed what Kaiba was wearing.  
  
"Kaiba! It's really you," Yugi said. He was still shaking, and Kaiba could still feel the pain and disorientation the younger boy was experiencing.  
  
"I will not ask you again, old man. Release him."  
  
The old man did not do anything. He seemed to be unable to take his eyes off of Kaiba. Frustrated, Kaiba walked up to the man and hit him in the face. The force of the blow knocked the priest backwards. He hit the back wall and fell to the ground, unconscious. Kaiba searched the man's robes until he found a heavy, metal key. He rushed back to Yugi's side and released the shackles. Yugi got to his knees, and rubbed his raw and bloody wrists. The younger teen took several deep breaths, visibly pulling himself together. Kaiba got closer to him, but Yugi's voice kept him from getting very near.  
  
"I can't block the link right now, Kaiba. If you get any closer, you'll feel this too."  
  
Yugi's head was lowered, but his voice betrayed how he felt.  
  
"What was the old man doing to you? Who is he?"  
  
When Yugi raised his head, he'd gained control of himself. His body still shook, but his face was set in a determined mask. Kaiba recognized the expression all too well, as he'd had to do the same thing himself many times while his adoptive father had still been alive.  
  
"That is Priest Akunadin, High Priest Seto's father, though I have a feeling the High Priest doesn't know that," Yugi explained. "Since I look so much like Pharaoh Yami, he wanted to extract my soul, like Pegasus did with my grandfather, you, and Mokuba."  
  
Kaiba shuddered as he remembered what it had felt like to lose his soul. No wonder Yugi had been screaming.  
  
"Why did he want your soul?"  
  
Yugi chuckled humorlessly. "He didn't want my soul, he wanted my soulless body to use against Yami. He was destroying my soul when you got here. Thank you for getting here before that happened, by the way."  
  
Kaiba shrugged, slightly pleased with Yugi's gratitude. Yugi looked horribly pale, but was making an effort to seem as if nothing was wrong.  
  
"How did you find me?"  
  
Kaiba stood when Yugi did, and led the younger teen out of the cell and back towards the staircase he'd descended.  
  
"I was wandering around the palace when I heard you. I just followed the sound of your voice," Kaiba replied. "Yugi, how did you end up here?"  
  
Yugi stopped and put his hand against the stone wall. His breathing hadn't returned to normal yet, and Kaiba worried that he was going to collapse.  
  
"I woke up in the desert, and the High Priest found me."  
  
Kaiba frowned. "The High Priest knows about this? He's in on it? No wonder the old man said I was betraying him."  
  
Yugi shook his head. "I'm not entirely sure that the High Priest is involved, Kaiba. He seemed very protective of the pharaoh when he thought I was a spy."  
  
"But he knew you were with Akunadin, right?"  
  
"I don't know. He cast a spell on me and I lost consciousness on the way here. When I woke up, Akunadin was with me."  
  
Yugi resumed walking, and Kaiba slowly led him back to where he'd been.  
  
"Have you seen Yami?" Yugi asked when they'd reached the top of the stairs.  
  
"No, but since you're here, Yami has to be around here too."  
  
"Have you seen the pharaoh?"  
  
"Oh, yeah. He's the one I ran into first. He thinks I'm the High Priest wearing strange clothes."  
  
Yugi smiled. "I can imagine. Where are we going?"  
  
"We're going to tell the pharaoh that his priests have betrayed him. I'm sure he'll know what to do with them," Kaiba replied.  
  
"What did you say, Seto?"  
  
Kaiba turned around to find Pharaoh Yami staring at him. Yami's eyes left Kaiba's, however, when he noticed Yugi standing beside him. The pharaoh walked to Yugi slowly, as if afraid to get close.  
  
"What is the meaning of this?" the pharaoh asked. "Who are you? Is this some kind of trick?"  
  
"My name is Yugi Moto, Pharaoh, and no, this isn't a trick."  
  
**~~**  
  
High Priest Seto was headed up to his room to change, when he heard the sound of children's laughter. His hands tightened into fists at the thought that security in the palace was lax enough so that a couple of kids had snuck in. He quickened his steps and reached the two children quickly, but then discovered the pharaoh standing beside them, showing them around.  
  
"I ask again, Pharaoh, why do you insist on bringing these children inside the palace?"  
  
Yami turned to him, annoyance and anger on his face. "I gave them my protection, and until I can return them safely to their home, I will keep them with me."  
  
High Priest Seto sighed. He hated it when Yami got soft hearted. He was sure that at some point, it was going to get the pharaoh killed.  
  
"Fine, then at least stop wasting your time. The council is already waiting in the throne room."  
  
Seto walked past the pharaoh and would have continued on to his room, except that his way was being blocked. He stopped dead in his tracks when he first saw the pharaoh, dressed in his royal robes, standing in front of a man that looked exactly like him, and the boy he'd found in the desert earlier.  
  
"Yugi!"  
  
Seto saw the man he'd been walking with, the other pharaoh, run past him and rush to Yugi's side. He embraced the shorter teen, and then gasped.  
  
"Yugi, what happened to you? You are shaking and in pain."  
  
The man that looked like Seto shook his head. "The old guy with the Millennium Eye tried to destroy his soul. He had Yugi chained up in one of the cells."  
  
As if to emphasize his point, the Seto look-alike lifted one of the boy's wrists and showed it to the second pharaoh. What had Akunadin done to the kid?  
  
As Seto was pondering what he was seeing, he realized that he was looking at the Yami from Yugi's memories, and at his double, Kaiba. Somehow, they had all ended up here, in his reality. To Kaiba's right, Pharaoh Yami was seething.  
  
"Why would Priest Akunadin want to hurt you?" he asked. "What did you do? Did you break into the palace? What are you doing here?" The Pharaoh was looking from one to the other, confusion and anger clear in his eyes.  
  
"Why don't you ask your High Priest," Kaiba said. "He was in on it with that old guy. He knew about Yugi already, since he found him in the desert and brought him here."  
  
Both Yami's turned to him. The Yami that Yugi knew had picked Yugi up and was cradling him in his arms, his face a mask of pain and anger.  
  
"You knew of this?" both Yamis asked at the same time. They turned to gawk at each other, surprised and confused, before returning their gaze to Seto.  
  
High Priest Seto was caught helpless in the angry gaze of both identical pharaohs, plus the gaze of his double and that of the smaller Yami look alike. What could he possibly say in his defense?  
  
"I knew of the boy, yes, but I did not know what Akunadin planned to do with him. He didn't tell me."  
  
Pharaoh Yami walked towards him, his hands clenched at his sides.  
  
"You betrayed me, Seto? Why?"  
  
"I didn't betray you, my Pharaoh," Seto replied, and it was the truth. He may have though about it, but had not done so.  
  
"Is Yugi okay, Yami?" Kaiba asked the pharaoh look-alike and Seto's attention turned to them.  
  
"He is not well. He is still struggling to piece his soul back together. If only I could go back into the puzzle and let him rest in his soul room, he would recover faster. I can not do that in this place, not while our souls are separated."  
  
Kaiba turned to the pharaoh and the high priest, surprising Seto.  
  
"Can you two argue about this later? Whatever you two need to fight about doesn't concern us."  
  
Pharaoh Yami was about to reply, but the other Yami cut him off.  
  
"Is there a place where Yugi can rest? He needs to sleep."  
  
Pharaoh Yami turned to Seto and glared at him, a promise that they would talk later.  
  
"Bring him to my chambers," the pharaoh said and led the way to the other end of the hall.  
  
Seto stayed behind and would have gone the other way had his double, Kaiba, not stood in his way.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Kaiba said, his expression cold and devoid of emotion.  
  
Seto was shocked, to say the least, to see himself standing next to him. Did he really look that cruel? He reached down at his waist and removed the Millennium Rod.  
  
"Do you really want to oppose me, impostor?"  
  
Kaiba smirked. "You want to take me on, using that thing as your only protection? Go ahead. I have a feeling the puzzle around my neck is stronger than that rod."  
  
Seto clenched his jaw. How dare this impostor defy him?  
  
"You don't belong here," Seto said.  
  
Kaiba shrugged. "I don't want to be here either, because I have a lot of things to do back home. Not that I'm particularly fond of either Yami or Yugi, but right now, they're necessary for my survival. You mess with them, you mess with me."  
  
Seto blinked, surprised. Kaiba sounded just as he had when he'd been asking Yugi if he was a spy. Was that loyalty he heard in Kaiba's voice? He wondered what kind of relationship Kaiba had with Yami and Yugi. From the memories he'd seen, it wasn't a good one. Why would he be so protective of them now?  
  
"What are you waiting for, are you going to take me on or what?"  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes and gathered his power around him. This imposter was going to pay for getting in his way. He got ready to strike with the Millennium Rod, but before he could, a white blur blocked his vision. Before he knew it, he was lying on the ground, his arms pinned above his head, the Millennium Rod flying out of his grasp. Kaiba kneeled over him, a smirk on his face.  
  
"Looks like I win."  
  
**~~**  
  
Cliffhanger? What cliffhanger? Does anyone see one here?  
  
Next up: One of the Setos gets his butt kicked (I haven't decided which one yet). Yami and Yugi talk. . . Pharaoh Yami is very confused. . . Joey tries to explain things to Ryou. Stay tuned! 


	14. The Flow of Time

Greetings!  
  
Since I'm having major writer's block with No Kinen Ni, I decided to write another chapter of this story. That, and the fact that Lizeth did this wonderful doujinshi of the scene with Kaiba and Pharaoh Yami in Pharaoh's Yami room, which gave me some inspiration to write more. I didn't ask her permission to give you all a link to it, so I'll ask her and give the link next chapter.  
  
Note: Each scene is told from a different character's point of view. It's not first person, but there is always one person who is narrating. If you pay attention to who that person is at the beginning of the scene and remember how he addresses everyone else (for example, if it's Pharaoh Yami that's narrating, he'll be familiar with Seto the priest but unfamiliar with Yami, Yugi, and Kaiba) then it'll be easier to keep track of who is who. I hope, at least.  
  
Reviews:  
  
Mittens No Hikari: I'm glad that you like Kaiba in this story! Because I started off not liking him, I try my best to make him understandable and likeable. Thank you for all your comments.  
  
Mimiheart: You're welcome and thank you for your great comments!  
  
Kikoken: Yup, Joey has his job cut out for him. Luckily, Ryou is pretty understanding and will let Joey go at his pace. I totally understand not having time for anything else. I'm in that boat too, but I'd miss writing that I try to make some time for it.  
  
SerafinaMoon: I'm back to school now. . . yuck! This semester is going to keep my very busy. I hope that you did well on your exams. It always is crappy to be on the edge of an A and an A-, but hopefully you'll do better next time. Thanks for the cookie!  
  
Cyberkat: Thanks for the review. I hope that you enjoy this chapter.  
  
Yami Rose: I don't really know much about the Millennium Items, so I didn't want to get too much into them or what they do just yet. I'll have to when I get to Gozaburo, but that's a little later.  
  
Sunrise and Sunset: Hi! Glad you got your own account. It is pretty cool to have one. Don't apologize for throwing anything at me, especially if it's food. The more the merrier!  
  
Vey Love: *blushing* Wow, thank you very much for your wonderful review! It put a smile on my face. I really love that you pointed out specifically what you liked about the story, and I appreciate you taking the time to do so. I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.  
  
Adrienne: You're right, Akunadin does need to die. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him just yet, though. I can let you borrow the Gozaburo plushie to torture for a little while, if you want. Just make sure it keeps all its body parts for when I need him again.  
  
Aura Black Chan: Should I be embarrassed that my readers look forward to what torture I'm going to inflict on my characters? I'm just kidding. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Master Elora Dannan: Yeah, it definitely was a migraine chapter. . . for me, at least. It was incredibly hard to get the chapter coherent enough so that the characters make sense and don't get confused. Oi. head hurts just thinking about it. I hope you are able to understand it though. Your review was hilarious, though!! I can so picture it.  
  
Hobbit13: Yugi actually was able to use the Millennium Puzzle to stop Akunadin. Well, not stop him entirely, but he was able to use it enough to keep his soul from being completely destroyed. Akunadin has much more practice with using his item than Yugi is, which is how he got the upper hand. Poor Mokuba. . . I know I torture him too much, but it's so much fun.  
  
Lightning Sage: Sorry for the confusion! I hope that it gets a little better for this chapter.  
  
Ieyre: I'm sorry to hear that the story is confusing. I hope it gets better.  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Yay! I'm glad the story is still fun! It's getting a bit harder to write with everything that's going on, but it's been well worth it. I can't wait to finish it, though.  
  
Katkid: ^__^ I've had those double mint commercials in my head ever since I've read your review. So true, so true. . . it's fun, though. Double the pleasure and all of that!  
  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon: One has martial arts, the other has magic. it's going to be an interesting match.  
  
AG the master: Thank you very much for the review! I'm glad that you're enjoying the story.  
  
Moonlight Shadow: I can just imaging the YGO cast doing LOTR. The costumes will look adorably cute on some of the guys, though. Ohh, cake. . . I love cake. Yup, that definitely works in getting an update. Thanks!  
  
Lizeth: Again, thank you so much for the fan art. It was amazingly close to what I had pictured when I wrote it, which made it all the better. By the way, Tuulikki said to tell you to draw Kaiba in Yugi's clothes ^__^.  
  
Ginger Ninja: Glad to know that it finally makes sense to you. I think I'm still working on it making sense for me. Good rationalization on the cliffhangers. . . I think I'll use that explanation next time someone complains about one ^__^  
  
S. K Hashmi: It's okay to be confused, since there is so much going on in each part of the story. I do try to make sure that the characters get separated and labeled correctly, but it doesn't always work out that way. The differing plot lines help keep me interested in the story, and it's always rewarding to know that the readers are enjoying them too. Thank you for your comments about the characterization of Seto Kaiba. I think he's one of the hardest characters to write and keep in character, and I'm glad that the way I've written him has come across well. I really like writing him. It's just so much fun because you can do a lot with him. Don't worry, I don't get offended when readers remind me to update. If anything, it makes me feel guilty for not updating and gets me writing again, so in the future, feel free to give me a gentle shove every now and then.  
  
Miss Sera: Wow. . . yup, it sure looks like I've missed a lot with the manga. I don't think Jenniyah has all of that up yet, but I do know that I'm behind in reading what she has up. Arg! It sounds so cool, though! I'll do my best to catch up asap!  
  
Samhain13: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Shadowwaker: Thank you very much! I'm glad that you liked the story. I hope that you continue to enjoy it.  
  
Tuulikki: Thanks for reviewing the contest fic. I'm glad that you liked it. I haven't had time to read any of the contest fics this time, but I'll try to read some before school gets any busier. Best of luck to you too at the contest!  
  
I'm glad that you decided to check out this story too! Lizeth's doujinshi was awesome, wasn't it? It floored me when I saw it. She's so freaking good at what she does. I'm glad you liked all the twists. I never know where it's going to go either, so it's fun to be surprised every once in a while. You didn't have to wait too long for the next chapter this time, just about a day. I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.  
  
Christie: Thank you very much for giving the story a shot and for reviewing! I'm glad that you've liked it so far.  
  
Nenya85: I agree with you. . . Seto did have a hard life, growing up without a family, even though his father was there all along. In a way, though, he had the pharaoh and all the other priests to be a sort of surrogate family to him, while Kaiba really did grow up without anyone. The fight scene between the two ended up differently than I'd originally intended, but hopefully it'll still be okay.  
  
Thanks again for all your wonderful reviews! Now for the rest of the story.  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 14: The Flow of Time  
  
"Looks like I win."  
  
The high priest glared at him, but it only made Kaiba angrier. He wasn't sure why he was angry. After all, he could care less about the priest's plan to overthrow the pharaoh. The man he was pinning to the ground was his identical twin, but it wasn't him. He had no responsibility to the pharaoh or anyone else in the palace. He didn't even have a responsibility to Yugi and Yami. Why was he angry, then? Was he angry because of Yugi and what had been done to him? Kaiba didn't particularly care for Yugi one way or the other, though, so that couldn't be it. Was it perhaps that he'd felt Yugi's pain, which made the ordeal personal? Yeah, that had to be it.  
  
"You win nothing," the priest growled.  
  
A glowing ball of light grew in the priest's hands so fast that Kaiba couldn't move out of the way as the priest threw it at him. The light was hot, blinding, as it hit him in the chest. It threw him back with such force that he crashed against a statue and promptly broke it. The noise was deafening to Kaiba's ears, and he shook his head to clear the ringing.  
  
"You son of a bitch," Kaiba cursed as he got up, trying not to wince as his back protested against the movement.  
  
The priest scrambled over to where the Millennium Rod lay, and Kaiba knew that if the priest could do so much damage to him without the rod, he would be in serious trouble if the priest got to his weapon. Kaiba ran to the fallen item, roughly shoving the priest aside as he went. The priest gathered more of his power and threw it at Kaiba, but the Millennium Puzzle absorbed the majority of it, leaving Kaiba dazed, but on his feet. He reached the rod and picked it up, noting how it hummed in his fingers. It glowed slightly, as did the puzzle, when he put his hands on it, before both items became dull again.  
  
"Give that to me," the priest demanded, holding out his hand.  
  
The man rushed Kaiba, and Kaiba instinctively held out the rod. It glowed momentarily, as did the puzzle. Suddenly, without any conscious thought from Kaiba, a stream of energy burst from both the rod and the puzzle, and slammed into the rushing priest. The man was lifted off his feet and thrown back to land on top of the statue Kaiba had broken earlier. Kaiba stared down at the Millennium items in morbid fascination. He'd felt an incredible rush of power unlike anything he'd ever felt before. What had it been? How had he been able to control the items?  
  
"You shouldn't be able to do that," the high priest said as he picked himself up off the floor. "The Millennium Items are only for a chosen few, and you're nothing but a stranger. You shouldn't be able to control one item, much less two."  
  
The priest had a point. Kaiba wasn't exactly sure how he'd done what he did, but he wouldn't mind finding out more about it.  
  
"What's the matter, Priest, are you jealous that I can use your little toy?" Kaiba asked.  
  
The priest laughed. "I have nothing to be jealous about, Seto Kaiba. I know who you are and I think I know where you come from. You're nothing but a nuisance to those around you. I saw it myself in Yugi's memories. I at least have a purpose, a reason for being. Do you know what your purpose in life is?  
  
Kaiba was surprised that the priest knew his name. How would he have been able to see Yugi's memories? What else had the man seen?  
  
"People like you who believe in destiny and a pre chosen path are just cowards that can't face the real world," Kaiba stated in response to the priest's questions. "I make my own destiny, choose where I want to go. I am free from the ties you've already bound yourself with."  
  
"People like you are just afraid to face the fact that their life is meaningless," the priest retorted. "You can tell yourself whatever you want, but the fact is that you are nobody, and when you die, no one will mourn you."  
  
Kaiba found the priest's condescendence and superior smile annoying and wanted to do nothing more than rip it off his face. He took a step forward, and then realized the stupidity of attacking his double. The man might not have the martial arts training he had, but the priest was well trained in magic. Even without the rod, the priest was a formidable opponent. The puzzle had stopped an attack once, but Kaiba wasn't sure if it would do it again. He didn't want to risk another attack, at least not until he knew how much the puzzle could block. He hefted the Millennium Rod once more, before throwing it at the priest. Caught off guard, the priest almost dropped the item as he caught it. Kaiba made a mental note to find out where the Millennium Rod was in his time. He might have some uses for it.  
  
**~~**  
  
Disjointed thoughts danced in his head.  
  
The light was too bright.  
  
The room was too cold.  
  
The noises were too loud.  
  
Kaiba's anger filled the gaps in his soul.  
  
Yami's concern took the anger away, leaving him full of holes once again.  
  
Yugi desperately fought to piece himself together, grasping at the pieces of his soul as they floated around him. Some pieces were white and fluffy, like a cloud on a summer day, while others were dark and flat, like the bloodied blade of a sword. When he touched the white ones, he absorbed them and a piece of his memory, a piece of himself, returned. When he touched the dark ones, they cut into his hands, making him bleed, but he absorbed them just the same.  
  
"Yugi, pay attention to me, you must listen."  
  
Yami's concerned, yet powerful voice, drifted down to him through the haze. It drew Yugi out and forced him to pay attention to what his physical eyes were seeing. He forgot about his soul for a moment to give Yami his attention.  
  
"I can feel the struggle within your mind, Yugi. You must not let it overwhelm you. Take deep breaths and trust your mind and the puzzle to help you become whole again."  
  
Yugi blinked as the sunlight pierced his eyes. He'd been underground for a while, and the light stung. He saw Yami sitting on the bed beside him, gently running one hand over his cheek, while the other clasped one of his hands. He felt instant relief at the sight of the spirit of the puzzle and gratitude that the spirit was still alive.  
  
"Good, you're still with me. I'm surprised that you managed to walk all the way up here on your own."  
  
Yugi smiled slightly. "Kaiba couldn't touch me. The priest would have taken his soul through the link too."  
  
Yami frowned in puzzlement, and Yugi cursed himself for sounding so disjointed. He concentrated once more, like he had down in the dungeon, and tried again.  
  
"The link Kaiba and I share was enhanced through physical contact. He touched me and felt what I was feeling. He wouldn't have been able to carry me, so I walked."  
  
Yami nodded in understanding. His gaze moved from Yugi to a point beyond the bed, and Yugi lifted his head to see what had caught Yami's attention. He gasped when he saw another Yami, dressed in the robes of the pharaoh, standing by the door. Pharaoh Yami looked regal, surreal, as he stood there, but Yugi could see the look of confusion in his eyes, as well as the undercurrent of anger. The pharaoh was not someone they wanted to cross.  
  
"I can heal him," Pharaoh Yami said.  
  
"What do you mean?" Yami replied, his hand tightening around Yugi's.  
  
"I am aware of the powers of the Millennium Eye and of Akunadin's abilities. If what your. . ." the pharaoh paused to look behind him. Seto Kaiba had walked into the room and was standing behind the pharaoh, behind him stood High Priest Seto. The pharaoh turned back to Yami. "As I was saying, if what your companion said is true, then I know what was done to him. I can heal him."  
  
Yami's eyes narrowed, and Yugi knew all too well that Yami was not happy with the suggestion. Yami was probably weary of what the pharaoh would ask in return for the help.  
  
"What do you want in return?" Yugi asked, startling the pharaoh, who had been looking at Yami. He desperately wanted to feel better, to put some order into his currently jumbled existence, but not at the cost of changing the past and altering the events that would eventually lead them back here.  
  
Pharaoh Yami came to the bed and sat on the other side of Yugi. Yugi felt odd, flanked by the two Yamis. To his left sat a regal and proud pharaoh, whose body language screamed self confidence and self assurance. The pharaoh looked at him with a mixture of awe and caution. To his right sat the Yami he was used to, the one who was guarded, secretive, and on a quest to find his history, the Yami that would protect Yugi no matter what. That Yami looked down at him with concern and care.  
  
"I only want what is owed me, an explanation," Pharaoh Yami replied.  
  
Yugi looked from one to the other, wondering what it was like for them to see each other, to see him. He didn't have to wonder about Yami for long, because he could feel Yami's fear, coupled with intense excitement and eagerness. Pharaoh Yami was a blank to him, but Yugi thought he also detected wonder and excitement in the ruler's eyes and face.  
  
"We can't, Yami," Yugi finally said, turning to his Yami. "We can't tell him what's going on, we can't interfere."  
  
They had been thrown almost 3000 years back into Yami's past. They knew how the events in Egypt would end up. They knew what would happen to Pharaoh Yami, High Priest Seto, and everyone else. They couldn't tell them that, or risk damaging the future they had come from.  
  
"Yugi, it doesn't matter," Yami said. "There is nothing we can tell them that will change history."  
  
Yugi shook his head. Didn't Yami get it? Didn't he understand what the danger was?  
  
"If something happens and we mess this up, things will change, Yami. If we change destiny, I'll never get the puzzle, I'll never meet you. I don't want that."  
  
Yugi pleaded with Yami to understand. He realized that he was being selfish for wanting Pharaoh Yami to die so that his soul could be trapped in the puzzle again when they were in a position to change his destiny, but Yugi didn't care. He didn't want to go back to the future to find that there had never been a Millennium Puzzle or Yami.  
  
Yami smiled that soft smile that only Yugi got to see.  
  
"It is destiny, Yugi, it can not be changed." He turned to Pharaoh Yami. "Heal him."  
  
**~~**  
  
Pharaoh Yami looked at his double and noted something on the man's features that he hadn't seen on his own since his father had died: loyalty to a loved one. He wasn't sure what the nature of the boy and his double's relationship was, whether it was that of lovers or brothers, but the pharaoh knew that it was deep and strong.  
  
He nodded in agreement and turned his gaze to the teen lying on the bed, the one that looked almost exactly like him and his double, but not quite. His features were softer, smoother, his eyes kinder and his whole demander was gentler than the pharaoh ever remember being. He didn't know why Akunadin had harmed the boy, why Seto knew about it, or what they planned to do with the boy once his soul had been removed, but he'd find that out soon enough. All he knew now was that he felt a connection to the boy on the bed and did not want to see him in pain.  
  
"Close your eyes and relax, young man," the pharaoh said as he laid his hand flat on the boy's forehead. "It's important that you relax."  
  
The boy's violet eyes were wide, and Pharaoh Yami could see the fear and mistrust in them. Pharaoh Yami saw his Millennium Puzzle glowing as he called upon his magical powers and noted that the boy's Millennium Puzzle glowed in return. He'd seen the puzzle react to him in a similar way when he'd been with Seto, who it turned out had not been his Seto at all, and he couldn't wait to get an explanation about what was going on.  
  
He gasped as he felt the state of the boy's soul. It had been ripped to shreds and hastily put back together. Pharaoh Yami tightened his jaw at the evidence of Akunadin's work. He knew this was how the priest operated, because he'd seen it done on criminals many times. It was done purposely to make the experience of losing one's soul as painful as possible. He assumed that the boy himself had pieced his soul back together as best he could, and had done and admirable job for the amount of time he'd had. It wasn't enough, though. If left the way it was, the boy's soul would go to pieces in less than a day.  
  
"Can you heal him?"  
  
Pharaoh Yami looked up to see the worried face of his double almost touching his. Startled, Pharaoh Yami moved his head back a bit, causing the other to frown.  
  
"Yes, of course. He will be fine."  
  
Pharaoh Yami ignored the other and closed his eyes, concentrating on the boy he was touching. He conjured up the image of a white cloud, a full cloud, untouched and unmarred. He gathered up the pieces of the boy's soul and put them inside the cloud. The cloud glowed brightly, and the Millennium Puzzle glowed in return. The pharaoh felt a warm tingle coarse through his body and onto the boy's body, as the cloud became golden and full.  
  
The pharaoh opened his eyes and saw that the boy's face had relaxed, that it was no longer pinched with pain and stress. The boy's eyes had closed, and Pharaoh Yami invoked the same sleeping spell he'd put on Seto to help him heal.  
  
"It is done. His soul has been pieced together and he will recover."  
  
The double closed his eyes and released a long sigh, then looked down to smooth the boy's hair away from his forehead. He arranged the sheets around the boy's shoulders and fiddled with the pillows, making sure that the boy was comfortable.  
  
"What is his name?" Pharaoh Yami asked.  
  
"His name is Yugi," the double replied, still looking down at the sleeping Yugi.  
  
"I will assume that your name is Yami, since you're my double" the pharaoh told his double, before he turned to the double of his high priest. "Your name is?"  
  
"I'm Seto Kaiba," the priest's double reluctantly replied.  
  
Pharaoh Yami nodded, digesting everything, keeping his mind open, his heart calm, to better deal with the situation. "Seto, would you care to tell me why you would capture Yugi and then give him over to Akunadin to have his soul extracted in a way reserved only for criminals?"  
  
The high priest walked further into the room so that he was standing in front of the pharaoh. He stood up to his full height and directly faced the pharaoh. Pharaoh Yami gazed into the priest's blue eyes and saw a myriad of emotions flowing through there, until they were suddenly gone, replaced by the cold acceptance and determination that was so characteristic of the priest.  
  
"I didn't know who the boy was when I found him in the desert. I assumed he was a spy attempting to infiltrate Egypt as your double, so I took him prisoner. When I reached the castle, Akunadin said he'd take care of it. I believed him."  
  
That wasn't the whole story. Pharaoh Yami had known High Priest Seto too long to be fooled by the priest's cold demeanor. He was hiding something, of that Pharaoh Yami had no doubt.  
  
From behind the priest, Seto Kaiba snorted. "Why don't you tell him the whole truth, priest?" the man asked.  
  
Pharaoh Yami looked from one to the other, their expressions and personalities so similar that if they had been wearing the same clothing, he would not have been able to tell them apart.  
  
Seto turned to his double. "This is none of your business, stranger, stay out of it."  
  
Seto Kaiba raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I'm a stranger now? Just a little while ago, you called me by my name. Why don't you explain that to the pharaoh?"  
  
"What are you talking about, Kaiba?"  
  
"He knows who we are, Yami. I don't know how, or when, but he looked into Yugi's memories. He knew my name and he knew Yugi's name. I don't think he knows how to classify you, since you're the spitting image of his pharaoh, but I think he saw enough," Seto Kaiba replied, still glaring at High Priest Seto.  
  
"Please settle down," Pharaoh Yami said, getting up from the bed and walking so that he stood between the two versions of Seto. "Seto, tell me what this man is talking about."  
  
Seto clenched his jaw. "On the way back to the palace, I attempted to see what Yugi wanted, why he'd disguised himself as the pharaoh, what he hoped to accomplish. I didn't get that. Instead, I saw glimpses of conversations, situations, where people were not dressed as we dress, they did not act the way we do, and these three people were in the center of those visions," he said, pointing at the three visitors. "They are not from our time, Pharaoh. They shouldn't be here."  
  
Pharaoh Yami gazed at his childhood friend and knew that in this instance, he was telling the truth.  
  
"He's right, we do not belong here."  
  
Pharaoh Yami turned to see that his double had gotten up from the bed and was now facing them.  
  
"We are here by mistake, my mistake. I simply wanted to transport myself, Yugi, and Kaiba to his home using the shadow realm, but my spell backfired, and we ended up here. We mean no harm and are not after anything."  
  
The pharaoh studied his double for signs of deception, but found none.  
  
"Where exactly do you come from? Seto is right; you don't dress as we do. Your clothing is unlike anything I've ever seen, as is your speech and customs."  
  
The double stared at him a moment, before glancing at the sleeping teenager on the bed. He took a deep breath, released it, and then faced the pharaoh again.  
  
"We are from the future."  
  
Pharaoh Yami's eyes widened. He was caught between the desire to gasp in astonishment or laugh at the stupidity of what his double had said.  
  
"You're from the future? How far into the future?" the pharaoh asked.  
  
"Kaiba? You know your history better than I do."  
  
Seto Kaiba thought it over before giving his reply. "I would say anywhere from 2800 to 3000 years in the future."  
  
Pharaoh Yami did laugh then, a hearty and rich sound that filled the room.  
  
"That is the funniest thing I have ever heard," he said between peals of laughter. "What do you take me for, a fool? Do you really expect me to believe that you've come from 3000 years in the future?"  
  
Behind the laughter, the pharaoh was seething. How could they lie to him like that? How dare they disrespect him? He'd given them the benefit of the doubt, had healed one of them, and all he got in return was a wild tale about time travel? The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.  
  
"Seto, aren't you going to say anything about this? Don't tell me you believe them?"  
  
Pharaoh Yami turned to his friend and found that the priest could not look at him.  
  
"I saw Yugi's memories, my Pharaoh. I have seen that they are not from our time. I did not imagine them to be from such a far off time, but it is possible."  
  
"It's the truth," Seto Kaiba said. "We have no reason to lie, not when all we want is to go home."  
  
"I know that you can search people's minds if you so desire. It is a property of the puzzle. I will allow you into my mind, Pharaoh, so you can see what your High Priest has seen."  
  
Pharaoh Yami looked at his double, enraged, but at the same time, surprised at the offer. Would the man trust him not to do anything to harm him? He had to admit that seeing the man's memories would reassure him, because the memories could not be hidden.  
  
"Very well. I will allow that."  
  
His double took a seat on the edge of the bed and bowed his head. "Do as you wish."  
  
Pharaoh Yami placed both of his hands on his double's head, the sunlight glinting off the gold on his wrists and fingers. He concentrated, reaching into the man's mind for the thread that held memories. He found it, and carefully eased himself onto it.  
  
****  
  
"Yugi, what is this contraption?"  
  
The pharaoh heard himself ask the question, but when he looked carefully, it wasn't him he was looking at, it was his double. The man was dressed in a blue outfit that was exactly like the one the teenager he'd healed was wearing.  
  
"It's a bus, Yami. It takes us where we need to go faster than walking," Yugi replied, and led a semi transparent Yami up some stairs and inside a metal container.  
  
The container began to move, and Pharaoh Yami watched in amazement as the scene outside of the 'bus' changed quickly. The bus was moving incredibly fast, and Pharaoh Yami glanced around him to see if he could find the horses that were pulling the container. After a few minutes, he realized that the bus was moving on its own without the aid of horses. How was the thing getting power if it wasn't being pulled or pushed? Pharaoh Yami gasped at the impossibly tall metal buildings and stone roads, and also at the strangely dressed people who looked nothing like the Egyptians he was used to. Everything was strange to him, and he couldn't deny the fact that even his brightest architects could never duplicate the metal contraption he was in.  
  
This had to be the future.  
  
****  
  
Pharaoh Yami jerked out of the scene and glanced at the two Setos.  
  
"So what did you see?" Seto Kaiba asked.  
  
Pharaoh Yami removed his hands from his double's head. "I saw something Yugi called a 'bus'."  
  
Seto Kaiba chuckled. "Yeah, those come in handy once in a while."  
  
Pharaoh Yami turned to his double. "I know that you can't make that up, not when I'm inside your mind. You said that you wanted to go home didn't you?"  
  
His double nodded.  
  
"How are you going to do that?" Pharaoh Yami asked.  
  
His double shook his head and sighed. "I do not know."  
  
**~~**  
  
Next up: I haven't the faintest idea, except for maybe the Joey/Ryou conversation I had to cut out of this chapter. We might go back to Mokuba too, who is still chilling at the beach. And don't forget Gozaburo. . . he's still around planning something. 


	15. Options

Greetings!  
  
No, I haven't died or lost interest in Yu-Gi-Oh!. I did finally stop watching the dub. It just got so terribly bad. I may pick back up when they get to the Doom stuff. I also haven't watched the last of the KC Grand Prix episodes, but the new Egyptian opening and ending does kick butt! I can't wait until they get to that part of the anime. Oh, and for those of you who read the manga, who is sad? I have to admit I cheated and read the latest chapter even though I hadn't read the previous 15 or so. Now I wish I hadn't...  
  
Here is the link to the doujinshi I was talking about last chapter. Lizeth did an awesome, awesome job on it and I'm very happy to share it with you all. Go take a look! The link wouldn't work on the page (sigh), so go to my bio to take a look at it.  
  
Reviews:  
  
I don't have time to go through the reviews today (that seems to be happening a lot and I'm very sorry) but I appreciate them very much. Please keep them coming. Guilt is an awesome motivator to get me to write when I do have some free time. Thank you to the loyal reviewers who review chapter after chapter (I love you all!!), to the ones who review once in a while and to the new reviewers! You all make my day and I'm always happy to hear any comments/questions/corrections and suggestions.  
  
I'll be updating the other story, umm... (I don't remember the name of it, now that should tell you something. Let me go check)... oh, yeah, Last Goodbye. That'll be my next update so if you're reading that, look for it sometime this month.  
  
Thank you all again and enjoy this short, but hopefully enjoyable chapter.  
  
**~~**  
  
Chapter 15: Options  
  
"Wait a minute, you're saying that Kaiba's adoptive father is alive and in Kaiba's body?"  
  
Ryou looked at Joey, who was sitting at the foot of the bed watching him. The blonde boy nodded, his face a mixture of pain, disbelief, and exhaustion. Joey had just told him what had been going on, and Ryou couldn't believe that he didn't remember any of it. How could he have forgotten something that bizarre? Unconsciously, his hand went to his chest, and he felt a pang of loss when he didn't encounter the familiar Millennium Ring.  
  
"So Gozaburo in Kaiba's body broke in here, attacked us, and took Yugi, his puzzle and my ring?" Ryou asked, sounding ridiculous to his own ears. Then again, he shouldn't be surprised. He'd seen more than enough 'weird' things ever since the spirit of the ring made an appearance in his life.  
  
"That about covers it," Joey replied.  
  
"What about Mokuba?"  
  
Joey's jaw tightened in anger. "That little brat is a Kaiba alright, just as stubborn and hard headed as his brother. He said he wasn't going to give Gozaburo what he wanted."  
  
Ryou's eyes widened. "Mokuba is willing to risk Kaiba's life on this?"  
  
"Apparently so. He said something about the company being more important to Kaiba. It's all a load of bull if you ask me."  
  
Ryou sighed. He felt tired, hurt, and empty. He missed the spirit of the puzzle more than he was willing to admit. He slowly sat up, gingerly fingering the bandages Joey had put over his wounds. The pain was intense, but bearable.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?" Joey asked, rushing to the side of the bed. "You're not about to spoil all the hard work I spent on you."  
  
"Don't you think we need to find Mokuba and talk him out of his plan?"  
  
Joey shook his head. "Why bother? He's just like Kaiba, he's not going to budge."  
  
A thump from the hallway caught their attention, and both teenagers froze. Joey brought a finger up to his lips, motioning for silence. He pushed Ryou back onto the bed and carefully walked to the door. Ryou could see nothing of the hallway so he was for all intents and purposes blind to what was going on. A second thump followed, and Ryou saw Joey jump at the sound. His own nerves had gone crazy and he found himself shaking uncontrollably. He didn't know why he was so scared all of a sudden, but it was making his already aching head worse.  
  
"Mr. Moto?"  
  
Ryou frowned. He wasn't expecting that response. What was Mr. Moto doing here anyway? Joey hadn't gotten around to that.  
  
"Joey, what happened? Where's Yugi? Is Ryou okay? What about Mokuba?"  
  
"Settle down, Gramps. Come in here and lay down before you faint on us," Joey said, ushering the elder Moto inside the room.  
  
As soon as the man's eyes landed on Ryou, they widened and he rushed over.  
  
"Ryou, are you alright? You look horrible, child."  
  
Ryou smiled sheepishly while Mr. Moto examined his injuries, running his hands tenderly over his head, shoulders and back. It felt nice to have the attention that his father rarely gave him.  
  
"I'm fine, Mr. Moto, I just have a bit of a headache."  
  
"Gramps, are you okay? You were out cold in there."  
  
Mr. Moto waved Joey's hands off and stood beside the bed. "That crazy bastard caught me off guard again. He took my grandson and I couldn't do anything to stop him. I think he had me drugged or something because I'm not injured, but I feel groggy."  
  
"Mr. Moto, don't take this the wrong way, but why are you here?" Ryou asked.  
  
The elder man gave Joey a confused glance, and Joey patiently explained what had happened to Ryou. He then told Ryou what he'd left out about Mr. Moto's attack at the game shop.  
  
"This guy must have been a real bastard when he was alive. It's a wonder Kaiba and Mokuba turned out okay," Ryou said.  
  
Joey chuckled. "I wouldn't call Kaiba okay by any stretch of the imagination."  
  
Ryou turned to him, a sudden burst of irrational anger rushing through him. "How would you expect to turn out if you'd been raised by a bastard like Gozaburo?" he asked, unsure of why he was suddenly defending Kaiba of all people.  
  
The question caught Joey off guard, but the blonde seemed to consider it. "Yeah, I guess you're right."  
  
The slamming of the front door startled all three of them and they made their way to the hallway as quietly as they could. Whoever had come in was making no effort to be quiet, their footsteps echoing loudly on the floor of the living room. The sound of someone climbing the stairs made them split up. Joey took a position to the right of the landing, Mr. Moto directly in front, and Ryou stayed at the door of his father's room.  
  
"It's just me, guys. I'm alone."  
  
Ryou let out a sigh of relief at the sound of Mokuba's voice. As the boy reached the landing, Ryou could see that his eyes were swollen, bloodshot, and rimmed in red, as if he'd spent a lot time crying. Joey glared at the boy, while Mr. Moto went to his side and examined him for any injuries.  
  
"Are you okay, Mokuba? Were you hurt?"  
  
Mokuba shook his head, and he seemed lost, defeated and ready to drop from exhaustion. He wouldn't look at Joey for the longest time, focusing instead of Ryou.  
  
"I'm glad you're okay, Ryou," Mokuba said, his voice hoarse from crying.  
  
His clothes were wet and stained with dirt, which made Ryou wonder where the boy had gone. His hair was full of dirt as well, which Mokuba probably hadn't even noticed. If he had noticed, Ryou had a feeling that the young Kaiba could care less about way he looked.  
  
"What are you doing here, Mokuba," Joey asked, "I thought you weren't going to cooperate."  
  
Both Ryou and Mokuba winced at the venom in Joey's voice.  
  
"Before you judge me, Wheeler, you should hear me out," Mokuba replied, his voice a perfect imitation of Kaiba's 'don't mess with me' tone.  
  
"Go ahead, we're all ears."  
  
"There is a way to get into my house that no one except Seto and I know about. The tunnels were built after Gozaburo died, and are different from the ones you and my brother used the last time. The entrance is outside the property, so we should be able to enter without Gozaburo's knowledge. We can get into the house this way, get Yugi out, and then think of something else."  
  
Everyone was quiet for a long moment, until Joey let out a loud yell.  
  
"Now we're talking!"  
  
**~~**  
  
"Tell me again what it is you were trying to do?" Pharaoh Yami asked.  
  
His double went into the explanation once again, starting from how he'd misused the spell that he himself had known since he was a child. He couldn't understand why his double could not remember it, and had asked about that. His double had gotten very quiet and changed the subject, which had made the pharaoh even more curious. He'd decided to let the matter go for the moment, however.  
  
The pharaoh and his double were still sitting on his bed, while his double brushed his hand through Yugi's hair, watching over the smaller boy. The priest had positioned himself by the door, while Seto Kaiba was sitting on the chair next to the balcony, watching everyone and everything.  
  
"So you recited the spell, specifying you wanted to get to the spell book, correct?" At his double's nod, the pharaoh continued. "If the book of spells is of Egyptian origin, it would be somewhere in this palace. You must not have specified which time period you wanted to go to, and the spell brought you here, where the book was first written."  
  
The pharaoh watched his double's reaction, fascinated as the eyes widened in disbelief at the simplicity of the resolution. It was strangely thrilling to watch himself. It gave him an insight into how others perceived him.  
  
"Then all we have to do is find the book in this palace and we can go home?" his double asked.  
  
Pharaoh Yami nodded. "Your finding of the book would fulfill the spell and send you back to where you originated. Whether that is where the book is in your time or where you were when you recited the spell, I can't say, but you would surely leave this time."  
  
"What are we waiting for then?"  
  
Surprised, Pharaoh Yami turned to see that the younger version of himself was awake and watching him.  
  
"Yugi, you should not be awake," his double stated, glancing affectionately at the young man. "You need to rest."  
  
"I'm fine Yami. I'm worried about everyone else, so I want to go home."  
  
"That sounds like a fine idea to me too, Yami. I say let's get the book and get the hell out of here," Seto Kaiba said.  
  
Outnumbered, his double nodded in agreement. He carefully got Yugi to his feet, while Yami left them to talk to the priest.  
  
"Do you know what book they're talking about, Seto?"  
  
The priest frowned, looking at the visitors with a look that bordered on envy. The pharaoh wondered why, but chose not to ask.  
  
"There is a book currently being put together from old and new spells, as reference for the apprentices that come in to be trained in the art of magic," Seto finally replied. "I don't know if that particular spell is there, but we can take a look."  
  
The pharaoh nodded. "Lead the way."  
  
Pharaoh Yami stepped outside of his room and ran into a dark headed boy with brilliant grey eyes. It took him a while to remember who the child was, and when he did, he felt guilt at having forgotten his charges.  
  
"Yuya, Neit, I'm sorry, I became occupied with my guests," he said.  
  
The boy's eyes were huge, and he was tightly holding on to Neit's hand. "Why are there two of you, pharaoh? Why are there two of the priest?"  
  
Yami smiled and kneeled down in front of the boy. "It's alright, Yuya. They're not going to hurt you or anyone else, they're just visiting. Why don't I take you both home to your mom now?"  
  
The boy nodded, satisfied with the reassurances he'd just been given.  
  
"Why don't you go with Priest Seto to the room where the scrolls are kept while I take Yuya and Neit home?" Yami asked as the three visitors left the room.  
  
"You are not going without me, Pharaoh," Priest Seto said.  
  
"I need you to show them the scrolls, Seto."  
  
"They can find them on their own," Seto replied, his eyes flaring dangerously. "I'm not letting you go alone."  
  
"Why don't we all go?" Seto Kaiba suddenly said. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to take a look around."  
  
**~~**  
  
In the end, Seto Kaiba had won, and they'd all piled onto one of the larger carriages. They all wore brown robes to disguise themselves, but the four guards that traveled with them gave them away, causing the villagers to stare at them anyway, even though they didn't know for sure who they were.  
  
The trip to the boy's house was uneventful and quiet, as the visitors were busy staring out at the passing scenery. The pharaoh couldn't understand his double's look of awe and wonder. Didn't he remember what his life as pharaoh had been like? Didn't he already know what his kingdom looked like?  
  
"We're here, pharaoh," Yuya said, pulling on his hand.  
  
The pharaoh looked down at the two kids and smiled. He made his way down the carriage, but then turned to his double.  
  
"Would you like to accompany me? The robe conceals your features, so no one has to know what you look like," he said, then looked down at the two kids. "You two aren't going to break our little secret, are you?"  
  
Yuya and Neit looked at each other, grinned, and then looked at Pharaoh Yami. "Of course not, Pharaoh! We won't tell anyone, we promise!"  
  
"Good."  
  
His double considered his offer for a moment and after a nudge and a few encouraging words from Yugi, nodded.  
  
"Let's go then," Pharaoh Yami said and walked to Yuya's house, his double on one side, the kids on the other, and two of the guards behind them.  
  
Before they reached the house, Yuya's mother rushed out and ran to her son, throwing her arms around him.  
  
"I was so worried about you," she scolded, "don't you dare pull that stunt again!"  
  
Pharaoh Yami lowered his hood and bowed to the woman. "I'm afraid that it is my fault they left. They were following me and when I saw them, I took them to the palace with me. My apologies for keeping them for so long, but other matters came up."  
  
The woman, who had just realized that the pharaoh was talking to her again, bowed deeply. "Pardon me for my rudeness, Pharaoh, I had not realized you were here."  
  
"It's perfectly okay, I just wanted to make sure your children were returned safely. I have brought you this, for your troubles."  
  
He motioned to one of the guards and he presented her with a basket full of food, fabric to make clothing out of, and some gold coins. Her eyes widened when she saw the contents and she bowed again.  
  
"Thank you very much, my Pharaoh. You are very generous."  
  
She would have said more had the sound of horses screeching not interrupted them. The guards immediately took off towards the carriage, and Pharaoh Yami and his double followed them. When they got to the carriage, they saw that the two guards they'd left were on the ground, dead, while one of the robed figures lay face down beside the carriage.  
  
Pharaoh Yami ran to the robed figure and turned him over. The golden headdress immediately identified the person as his High Priest. Pharaoh Yami felt the priest's neck for a pulse, and his heart froze when he found none. He untied the robe and put his hand over the priest's chest, but couldn't find a heartbeat there either.  
  
"Seto? Seto!" Pharaoh Yami shook the man, but got no response.  
  
As he shook the priest, a small, wooden dart fell to the ground. Pharaoh Yami clenched his jaw when he saw it, knowing exactly what band of thieves used that kind dart and the deadly poison it contained. If he didn't get Seto back to the palace where the healers could look at him, he would die, if he wasn't dead already.  
  
"Yugi? Kaiba? Answer me!"  
  
His double's voice brought him out of his musings, and he realized that neither Yugi nor the priest's double was around. He looked at the people standing about, but most avoided his glare.  
  
"What happened here? You said they'd be safe with the guards!" his double asked.  
  
Pharaoh Yami shook his head. "Bandits, that's what happened. They killed my guards and probably took Yugi and Seto Kaiba as hostages."  
  
"Do you realize what that means?" his double asked, his voice tinged with anger and desperation.  
  
"Right now, I don't care. I need to get my high priest back to the palace before he dies!"  
  
His double reached out and hauled him to his feet, drawing the attention of the guards. His double pulled him close until his lips were right next to Pharaoh Yami's ear, guaranteeing that only he would hear what was about to be spoken.  
  
"If those bandits take a good look at Yugi and Kaiba, they'll think they have captured you and your priest. Do you really think they stand a chance of living through the day?" His double growled, his voice low but deadly. "You may not care about their lives, but I do. Take your priest to the palace if that's what you want, but I'm going after my friends."  
  
His double released him, and began to walk away.  
  
"What are you going to do?" Pharaoh Yami challenged. "You don't remember anything, do you? All of this is new to you, so how are you going to know who to look for and where to go? I know where they hide and I know who they are. If you want to find your friends, you need me, and if we're going to stand a chance of bringing them back from whatever is done to them, we need High Priest Seto."  
  
His double stopped walking and stood motionless for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, he dropped his head in resignation and got back on the carriage. Pharaoh Yami and the guards put the priest on the floor of the carriage, and then headed back to the palace.  
  
**~~**  
  
No throwing tomatoes, okay? I need my computer clean to do my programming assignments. Now if you want to throw ice cream cakes, my muse and I will gladly accept them.  
  
Next up: Thief Bakura makes an appearance. Mokuba redeems himself in Joey's eyes (sort of). Is High Priest Seto dead? Where are Yugi and Kaiba? What would you all think of a Pharaoh Yami/Yami fight? Okay, so I'm just throwing ideas around. I don't think I've written a duel in this story yet... I may have to think of one. Until next time! 


	16. Hearts of Darkness

Greetings! Here is yet another chapter of this depressing tale.  
  
This has been the hardest chapter for me to write. It took me a week to finish, mainly because I ended up writing three versions of it. I agonized about what version to post, and even considered not posting those and writing a fourth one. The main reason for my distress is that I've never, ever written anything this dark. I've gotten close, yes, but that's about it. This time, even though I have no doubt most of you will hate me by the end of it, I decided to go with my first instinct and post the first version.  
  
In order to keep anyone from complaining and getting my story deleted from ff.net, I edited it (one scene is missing and two of the other scenes were toned down in content) and will only post the PG version here. The R version is on my web site. You can find a link to it on my bio page, since I still don't know how to post links within the chapters. If anyone knows how to do this, please tell me!  
  
Thank you all for the reviews!! I'm so happy to see people sticking with the story, and I'm always happy to hear your comments. I'm also happy to see that new people are starting the story and joining our angsty little group. Keep it up, everyone!  
  
I have finals next week (YAY!) which means that I'll soon be free to write more. Until summer school starts, that is (damn Linear Algebra). However, more summer sessions mean a quicker graduation, so I can't complain.  
  
WARNING: Mentions of rape, violence, language.  
  
On with the show.  
  
**~~**  
  
Part 16: Hearts of Darkness  
  
Pharaoh Yami stood just in front of the door leading to the balcony in Priest Seto's quarters, nervously glancing from one healer to the other as they worked on his High Priest. Seto had been running a high fever when they'd brought him to the palace, so he'd taken the priest to the bath and soaked him in the cool water for a bit. Once that had been done, he'd dressed Seto in a simple linen robe and laid him on his bed, where antidotes and herbs had been administered to fight the poison.  
  
The bandits that had taken them by surprise had attacked convoys before, but they had never managed to get close enough to wound high ranking officials. Because they knew about the bandits, the healers had been exposed to the poison used and had an antidote for it. The only draw back was that there was a time limit in the administration of the antidote, and the pharaoh hoped that they hadn't been too late in returning with the priest.  
  
Pharaoh Yami cursed his lapse in judgment at allowing the priest and the other two to remain out in the open with so few guards. He should have known better, should have insisted that everyone except himself, his double, to whom the children had been attached to, and the children stay at the palace. It was no use thinking of what he should have done. Now he had to worry about what he needed to do now.  
  
"Pharaoh."  
  
Pharaoh Yami noticed that the healers had removed themselves from Seto's side and were kneeling in front of him, their heads bowed.  
  
"How is he?"  
  
"He will live, my Pharaoh," the male healer said with a tone of voice that suggested he was well aware of the consequences if the priest died. "We administered the antidote in time, and with some rest, Priest Seto will be back to normal."  
  
"Very well. What is needed for him now?" Pharaoh Yami asked.  
  
"Rest and liquids," the female healer said. "I will remain by the Priest's side to make sure he receives both."  
  
Pharaoh Yami nodded in agreement and the healers got up from the floor and went about their business. He walked to the bed and examined his childhood friend. Seto was pale, except for his cheeks, which were tinged red with the fever that still raged through his body. His forehead was wet with sweat, which made his hair cling to it in wet clumps. Slowly, the pharaoh brushed the damp strands aside, whishing that Seto would open his eyes, smirk, and say that everything was going to be okay. Pharaoh Yami sighed. That wasn't likely to happen for a few more days.  
  
Turning his back on his priest, he walked onto the balcony, where his double stood facing the grounds, still dressed in the brown robe he'd had on earlier. His hands clutched the railing so hard that his knuckles were white, and he refused to acknowledge the pharaoh as he stood beside him. A part of him fumed at the disrespect, but he did not show it.  
  
"Will he live?"  
  
The pharaoh's eyebrows shot up at the question. "I didn't think you cared one way or the other."  
  
His double turned to face him, his face showing the barely contained rage that flowed through his mind.  
  
"I don't know him, nor do I owe him anything. My concern is for Kaiba and Yugi, whom you left out in the middle of nowhere, in a time they are not accustomed to; with bandits that would kill them thinking they were killing you and your priest, or kill them simply for sport."  
  
The venom is his double's voice caught Pharaoh Yami by surprise, as did the flash of malice and rage in those red eyes that were identical to his. Was he really that vicious when he got angry? Was that why most of the servants avoided him unless they absolutely had to deal with him?  
  
"I did what I thought was best. Besides, the bandits will not kill them; they will more than likely try to use them against the government."  
  
He said that, hoping to calm down his double, but he knew that both he and Seto had many enemies in this particular group of bandits, and that they would not hesitate to extract their revenge if they thought it possible.  
  
His double laughed, but the sound was bitter. "What will they do to them in the meanwhile? Torture them? Beat them or worse?" His double began to pace the length of the balcony, avoiding the space where the pharaoh stood. "The civilization Yugi and Kaiba were born in is not like this one. There is very little violence there, very little revolt and social discontent. The people are more educated, the children protected from the harshness of the times. Kaiba and Yugi are both strong individuals who have faced many challenges, but they will not be able to easily deal with malice for the sake of malice, violence just for the fun of it. You have exposed them to that, you have destroyed what little of their innocence remained, and I hope, for your sake, that they do not end up dead."  
  
Pharaoh Yami's hands clenched into fists and his jaw tightened in anger. He was still the Pharaoh and deserved the respect that went with the title, even from the man standing in front of him.  
  
"Is that a threat? What will you do to me then, kill me? You wouldn't get the chance."  
  
His double tightened his own jaw. "I am you, remember? I may not have all of the memories, but I know myself, which means that I know you. Don't think that I won't use what I know against you if you let Kaiba and Yugi be killed."  
  
"I do not want harm to come to them; you do understand that, don't you?" Pharaoh Yami asked.  
  
His double shook his head. "If you do not want them harmed, why have you not sent out search parties? You said you knew where they were, so why aren't we there yet?"  
  
"We need to wait for Priest Seto to recover before we do anything."  
  
"Why is that?" his double asked, turning to face him once again. "You mentioned that when we found him unconscious, but you did not explain what you meant."  
  
"Priest Seto has the ability to heal. His magical powers will be invaluable when we find your friends."  
  
His double's eyes widened. "You expect Yugi and Kaiba to be hurt, don't you? You know that whoever took them will torture them because of who they look like, and yet you still do nothing?" he asked, his voice rising in volume as his anger grew.  
  
Pharaoh Yami sighed. "That is the world in which we live in now. I do not mean to be insensitive, but at this point, we are better off waiting for Priest Seto to heal, or else when we find your friends, there will be nothing we can do for them."  
  
His double looked him in the eye, a gaze so piercing that Pharaoh Yami had to look away.  
  
"I want to see the book of spells while we're waiting for the priest to recover."  
  
Pharaoh Yami frowned, confused. "Why?"  
  
"If I find it, maybe it will take us all back to our time, without having to wait for you or the priest to find my friends, and without subjecting them to unnecessary pain."  
  
The pharaoh thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. "Come with me, I will take you there myself."  
  
**~~**  
  
Seto Kaiba returned to consciousness as his body hit the ground. He bit his lower lip to keep from crying out in pain, instinctively knowing that it was important that whoever had thrown him did not know he was awake. He'd fallen on his side, his face turned towards the ground, which hopefully hid his wince. He felt the warm sand against his exposed skin and knew they were outside.  
  
"This is by far the best catch we've ever made."  
  
The man's voice was loud, raunchy, and came from somewhere above him. Kaiba tensed, but no one came near him. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was talking to Yugi on one of the carriages while waiting for Yami and the pharaoh. How had he gotten to where he was? Where was everyone else?  
  
"As soon as the Egyptian government realizes that we have their precious pharaoh and their high priest, they're sure to give in to our demands," someone else said. "That doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with them while they're here."  
  
Flashes of memory assaulted Kaiba, and he remembered being ambushed on the street as he, Yugi, and Priest Seto waited for Yami and the pharaoh. He'd been hit with something, probably a drugged dart, and had passed out. He hadn't seen who had attacked or who else had been injured, and he dreaded to think of who else was with him.  
  
A kick to his stomach caused him to open his eyes and groan loudly as the pain engulfed his entire body. He curled in on himself, his hands instinctively clutching his stomach.  
  
"This one is awake already," another voice said and grabbed Kaiba by the hood of the robe he'd been wearing, pulling him up to a sitting position.  
  
Kaiba's eyes narrowed from the brightness of the sun, and he saw a scruffy, heavy man about his height, dressed in torn pants and no shirt. The man's muscles were bulging, and Kaiba didn't think he'd want to mess with him. In front of them, a man towered over him, holding a smaller person by the scruff of the neck. It took him a while to realize that the person these people thought was the pharaoh was really Yugi. As soon as the thought had entered his head, a stab of fear entered his heart. What were they planning on doing with them?  
  
"What do you have to say for yourself now, priest? You don't look so mighty right now, do you?" the man holding Yugi was sneering down at him. "I've been waiting a long time for the opportunity to meet you one on one, without all your guards."  
  
Carelessly, the man threw Yugi aside, where he landed in a heap beside the man. The man kneeled down to Kaiba and took his chin, squeezing tightly. Kaiba pushed the man away, grunting with the effort that it took to dislodge the man's hands from his face. The man stumbled, but did not fall. He nodded to the other man, and Kaiba's hands were suddenly held in a tight grip behind his back. He tried to break the hold, but was unsuccessful.  
  
"Take a look at this one. He's a fighter! Who would have though that the priest had any strength in him," the man who had thrown Yugi aside yelled, and a few more men, six in all from what Kaiba could see, came into the small clearing they were in. It looked like a small camp site, complete with makeshift tents, rock outcroppings, and places to build fires. It was probably the bandit's camp, which was enough to make Kaiba realize that they were in serious trouble.  
  
As the man in front of him neared him, Kaiba kicked his right leg and barely missed hitting the man's knee. The man, for his part, only nodded again. Something hit Kaiba on the back of the head, disorienting him momentarily. When he came back to his senses, the man's knees were on his legs, rendering him immobile.  
  
"You don't remember me, do you, Priest? You don't remember the humiliation you put my family through, and I bet you don't remember giving me this," the man growled, practically spitting in Kaiba's face.  
  
The man shook his head to clear the hair from his face, and Kaiba was left looking at the man's mangled right cheek. An imprint of the same eye that decorated Yugi's pyramid rested in the center, the skin around it wrinkled and darkened. He put his face close to Kaiba's to make sure that the younger man would not miss the horrid scar.  
  
"You had no regard for me or my people when you came through our village. You didn't care who you hurt or maimed, as long as you got what you wanted. Well, now it's my turn to give you what you deserve."  
  
Kaiba's eyes hardened and he schooled his face into as impassive a mask as he could muster. There was no need to let the bandits know that he was afraid. They'd only use it against him.  
  
"I don't know, nor do I care about your petty problems," Kaiba hissed, earning a hard pull on his arms from the guy behind him. "You really have no idea what you're getting into."  
  
Kaiba was not giving anything away. Inside, however, he was quaking. He was powerless to break the grip the two men had him in, and he didn't like the look on the man's face. He didn't know what his double and this man had gotten into, but it was obvious from the result that his double had won.  
  
The man felt around his waist but did not find what he was looking for. Shrugging, he held out a hand, and the man holding Kaiba's arms momentarily released one arm to hand the man in front of him a small dagger. Kaiba used the moment to lash out with his fist, but the man in front of him was faster and easily caught it. He backhanded Kaiba with the hilt of the dagger, leaving a deep gash right below his right eye. Kaiba let out a soft yell or surprise and pain, and then cursed his luck as his vision went in and out of focus again. Roughly, the man behind him grabbed his hand once again, this time tightly gripping both wrists.  
  
"You're just a child, priest. Without that golden rod of yours, you're helpless. Your magic is your power, nothing more, and since you don't seem to have any magic at your disposal right now, you're at our mercy."  
  
Kaiba saw Yugi move slightly, but hoped that for his own sake, the younger duelist would stay put. Neither of he other two men seemed to have noticed, though, which was a good sign.  
  
"What is one of the important things of being a priest?" the man asked, though it was clear that he wasn't expecting an answer.  
  
Kaiba kept his mouth shut. He figured silence was the best policy this time around.  
  
"I'll tell you. It's purity. A priest has to be pure of heart and mind to serve the gods and the pharaoh, doesn't he? He has to be untouched, unblemished in order to fulfill his role. I have no doubt that up to now, you have been untouched and unblemished," the man said, snickering as Kaiba's eyes widened slightly. "You walk around in your white robes, proclaiming yourself Egypt's savior, but you're nothing but a lost little boy who thinks he's too good for everyone around him."  
  
The man unsheathed the dagger his companion had given him. He jerked Kaiba's head backwards by the hair, and rested the tip of the dagger at Kaiba's throat. Kaiba's instinct was to swallow, but as soon as he did, he felt the tip of the dagger cut his throat.  
  
"My sister was also pure, young and unblemished, until you came through our village. Do you remember that, priest? Do you remember finding your bodyguard forcing himself on her?"  
  
Kaiba stared at the man's hate filled eyes and found that he was trembling slightly. He could understand wanting revenge for crimes committed against a sibling. He'd done plenty of that himself on Mokuba's behalf, but he hadn't been involved in what this man was talking about. He couldn't help but feel angry at the cruel destiny that kept putting him in these situations.  
  
"What's the matter, you don't have an answer?" the man yelled.  
  
"No, I don't. I wasn't there, so I don't know what you're talking about," Kaiba finally said, but he doubted the man would believe him.  
  
"You bastard!" the man yelled, digging the dagger deeper into Kaiba's throat, enough to draw a slight trickle of blood. "I found him with my sister and I would have killed him, as is my right, until you interfered. You defended that rapist of a guard and gave me this hideous scar for getting in your way. You don't deserve to live."  
  
The man stopped his tirade, breathing heavily, his eyes wide and his pupils dilated in rage. Kaiba stayed as still as possible, hoping that in his anger, the man would slip up and allow him to get away. Behind the man, Yugi stirred again. His head lifted a little, but not enough for Kaiba to see his face.  
  
'No! Stay down, Yugi, please!'  
  
Kaiba didn't want Yugi brought into the middle of this, not yet anyway. If he managed to break free, he'd need Yugi awake and aware, but not yet.  
  
"I have something better, though. Since you were unwilling to punish the man who attacked my sister, I think it's fitting that you should suffer the same fate."  
  
'No, this isn't happening to me!'  
  
Kaiba began thrashing wildly, desperate to get his arms lose from the grip of the other man. He felt one begin to slip through, before the man twisted his arm even higher up his back, and crushed the wrist hard enough that Kaiba heard a snap as his bones gave way.  
  
"Get off of me, you creep," he yelled, twisting and turning wildly. "Stop it!"  
  
"How does it feel to be defenseless, knowing that no one will come to your aid?"  
  
Kaiba closed his eyes tightly, unwilling to see what was about to happen. The man holding his arms was laughing, and the sound reverberated in Kaiba's ears as if he were hearing an echo.  
  
"NO!"  
  
Suddenly, the man in front of Kaiba stopped and cursed. He let go of the dagger he'd been using and put a hand on his shoulder, where a blade was now protruding. Yugi was standing behind the man, his hand still on the hilt of the dagger he'd shoved into the man's upper arm. Kaiba didn't know where Yugi had gotten the dagger, but the wound hadn't done the man much damage, not with the man's thick arms.  
  
One of the men that had been standing around rushed Yugi and picked him up by the neck, tightening his hold until Yugi's face began to turn blue from lack of oxygen. Yugi struggled, but was a few feet off the ground and could do nothing.  
  
"What do I do with him, Hori?"  
  
The man, Hori, took the dagger out of his arm, wincing slightly at the pain it caused. Blood flowed out of the wound, but the man didn't seem concerned.  
  
"Let him watch and see if he still wants this boy as his High Priest when we're done with him."  
  
**~~**  
  
****Scene deleted due to adult content. Read warning and notes on top of page if you skipped them for more information.****  
  
**~~**  
  
The darkness stretched all around him, deep and penetrating. He reached out for someone, anyone, to help him escape it, but he was all alone. He couldn't even see his hand in front of his face.  
  
Kaiba's screams reverberated through the darkness, chilling him to the bone with their desperation and helplessness. He wanted to help, he really did, but there was nothing he could do. He was being held against his will, forced to watch, to listen, as Kaiba...  
  
Yugi closed his eyes, tears leaking out of them as he shivered uncontrollably in the cool darkness.  
  
"You did do something about it."  
  
Yugi's head jerked up and he saw Hori, the man who had first attacked Kaiba, staring at him, pointing a finger at him.  
  
"You killed us, remember? You're a murderer, no better than us; our blood is in your hands."  
  
Yugi shook his head. "NO! I did what I had to do to stop you. I..."  
  
The plea died in his throat. They were right. He had killed them, all of them. He still didn't know how he'd done it, didn't understand how he'd been able to summon the Shadow Realm and take the men's lives, but he'd done it. It had been too late to keep Kaiba from being hurt, but he'd still taken the men's lives.  
  
Nausea rose up in his throat at the thought. Suddenly, he wasn't in the darkness anymore. He was on his back on the sand, staring up at the sky. Bile rose in his throat and he quickly got to his hands and knees and vomited. He hadn't had much to eat, but his stomach still wanted to get rid of everything in it. When he was done, he collapsed back onto the ground, facing the spot where Kaiba had been.  
  
'Wait a minute, where is Kaiba?'  
  
Yugi immediately got to his feet and made his way to where he thought Kaiba should be. The fact that he was drenched didn't register until he was halfway there.  
  
'Did it rain?'  
  
Yugi looked around and spotted Kaiba sitting against a rock about twenty feet away from where Yugi was standing, a shoe on one foot and his white coat pulled tightly around his body. The elder teen's eyes were open, but they were unfocused, looking at something that only Kaiba could see. Kaiba's face was bloody from a cut to his cheek and devoid of all emotion, to the point where if Yugi hadn't seen the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, Yugi would have though Kaiba was as dead as the other men strewn around the campsite.  
  
"Kaiba?"  
  
Yugi approached him cautiously this time, the throbbing in his jaw and cheek reminding him of what could happen if he startled Kaiba again. When he was within touching distance, Yugi stopped.  
  
"Kaiba, it's Yugi, can you hear me?"  
  
Yugi didn't know what to do, what to say. He could only imagine what Kaiba was going through and didn't have the first clue about how to help. When Kaiba didn't respond, Yugi looked around and saw Kaiba's other shoe lying a few feet away. He picked it up and held it in his hands, unsure of what to do with it. He stood there for several minutes, until he decided on a course of action.  
  
"Kaiba, I'm going to put your other shoe on, okay?" Yugi said.  
  
He didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he kneeled next to Kaiba and slipped the shoe on. When he turned to Kaiba, his eyes had focused and he was looking at Yugi. The stare was somewhat confused, as if Kaiba wasn't quite sure of what he was looking at. Tears welled in Yugi's eyes, but he refused to let them fall.  
  
"I don't know how to help," Yugi finally said.  
  
Kaiba shook his head slowly, and tightened his grip on the coat. Yugi noticed then that Kaiba's left arm was limp at his side, and that the wrist was swollen to twice the normal size. Yugi kneeled next to Kaiba's arm, and reached out for the wrist, but stopped.  
  
"I'm going to take a look at it, okay, Kaiba?"  
  
Kaiba nodded and Yugi gingerly touched the swollen flesh. Kaiba hissed in pain, and that alone told Yugi that the wrist was in serious danger. The rest of Kaiba's body was badly injured as well, and he desperately needed medical attention. However, they were out in the middle of the desert in a now deserted bandit's camp. The day was growing short and nightfall would soon come. The desert temperature would drop dramatically, and if they didn't find shelter, they'd be dead by morning.  
  
"How?"  
  
The question came out hoarse and raspy, and Yugi winced at the reminder of what had happened to make Kaiba's voice that way. He had no water to ease the soreness in Kaiba's throat, which only made Yugi feel that much more helpless.  
  
"How what?" Yugi asked, even though he already knew what Kaiba was asking about.  
  
Kaiba looked around the camp, before his eyes rested on Yugi once again. "The men," he said.  
  
Yugi swallowed. His breath quickened a bit, as did his heart beat. He sat cross-legged and nervously popped his knuckles. He didn't want to talk about it, but he owed Kaiba the truth.  
  
"I killed them."  
  
Kaiba gasped, and Yugi couldn't look up at him. He didn't want to see the condemnation in Kaiba's eyes. What would he think now? What would everyone else think of him now? A hand came into his view and touched his knee. Yugi looked up to see that Kaiba's face was contorted with the pain that moving his hand to reach him had caused. There was no condemnation in Kaiba's eyes, no blame. If anything, there was relief.  
  
"How?" Kaiba repeated.  
  
Yugi sighed. "I really don't know. All I know is that I wanted them to stop hurting you. I pleaded and yelled at them but they wouldn't listen," Yugi said, his voice rushing through the explanation as his emotions spiked. "I didn't mean to kill them, I just wanted them to stop..." he trailed off then, not sure of what else to say.  
  
They both remained quiet for a while, neither one moving or looking at the other. The dead bodies lay a distance away from them, but Yugi couldn't help but feel their presence in his heart and mind.  
  
"We have to go," Kaiba said, his voice getting softer and hoarser with each passing sentence.  
  
"We can't, Kaiba. You can't."  
  
Kaiba opened his mouth to protest, but Yugi beat him to it.  
  
"I'm not going to drag you all over the desert right now, when the only thing you should be doing is staying still." A sudden though occurred to him. "The puzzle has some healing properties. I somehow summoned the Shadow Realm to... kill... those men," it pained Yugi to say the word, but he had to be honest with himself and admit what had happened, "so maybe I can access the healing properties of the puzzle as well. You're sharing the puzzle with me, so it might just work."  
  
Kaiba's eyes widened and Yugi saw a bit of hope in them mixed with all the pain, sorrow, and exhaustion. Kaiba nodded once, giving Yugi permission to try.  
  
Yugi smiled sadly and took a deep breath. He had to be able to do this, for both of their sakes.  
  
**~~**  
  
He felt the spike of magic like a gust of wind, hot and piercing. It made him stagger, and he nearly lost his footing and fell down the stone wall he'd been perched on. He sent his senses out to the surrounding desert, hoping to catch the signature of the magic. When he found it, his fists clenched as he recognized the wielder of it. It was magic that he was very familiar with, magic that the lives of the people of his village had died to create.  
  
He refocused his senses, seeking the direction from which the magic had come. He found it quickly enough and was surprised that it originated not that far from his ruined village. It would be a matter of hours to get to where the pharaoh was. Out here in the desert, the thief knew that the pharaoh was at a disadvantage. Even if he'd brought guards with him, they could easily be disposed of.  
  
Bakura chuckled darkly and headed for where he kept his horse, already savoring another meeting with the pharaoh.  
  
**~~**  
  
I'm not ducking or hiding this time. If you want to throw rotten tomatoes at me, feel free to do so, even though I'd much prefer ice cream cakes or Reese's peanut butter cups (yum!). I'm going to go write Last Goodbye now... I have more Kaiba torturing to do. 


	17. To Find the Lost

Greetings!  
  
Ahem... about last chapter: well, let's just say that it got very mixed reviews. Most were good, but I did get a few not so nice e-mails. One person questioned my morality, which really hurt my feelings. I mean, this person knows nothing about me other than the fact that I'm a YGO fan and I write fanfiction, so what right does he/she have to question anything about me? I don't mind constructive criticism or anything of the like, but personal attacks do bother me.  
  
I will assume that those of you who are still reading this are okay with the subject matter we're now dealing with, because unlike most other fanfics that deal with rape, it isn't going to go away or be swept under the rug in favor of happier things. I have my reasons for wanting to write this, and those will stay personal. I just hope that the story is still enjoyable for those of you who stayed.  
  
An issue a reviewer brought up: What does this current storyline have to do with what the story originally started out with? Right now, the answer is nothing. Later on, however, the two storylines will come together in a way that makes sense to me now because I'm writing it and will probably make sense to you a few chapters down the line. If I write it correctly, that is.  
  
Okay, now that the serious stuff is done, on to cheerier things. I just watched episode 203 and I have to say I'm giddy with excitement. I don't want to spoil anything for those of you who aren't there yet, but those of you who are probably know why I'm so giddy. Talk about inspiration to write this story!  
  
Reviews:  
  
Earthfirewindwater: catches candy and stashes it under desk Thanks! To my chocolate addicted mind, they are better than roses. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Shadowwaker: I kept meaning to e-mail you back and reply to your review that way, but I kept forgetting. Sorry about that! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, darkness and all.  
  
MotherChowGoddess: Yummm, ice cream. We have an Italian ice cream place around here that we always go to. It has twice as much sugar as American ice cream, but its soooo good! The link should be up on my bio now, if you haven't already found it. FF.net was slow in updating the page, which is why the link didn't show up when the chapter did. Yes, that is my SG-1 page. I haven't written/read that type of fic in about 2 years, and I would take the page down, except that it still gets some hits, so I just leave it up there. Good luck with your story! This is a really hard subject to write about, and it does take a lot of work. I would suggest doing research on the subject before you write about it, so that you're a bit more informed. Take care!  
  
AG the master: Yup, depressing is certainly the word. Glad you liked it anyway, though.  
  
Una1: YAY! I'm always happy to hear that. Thanks!  
  
Mimiheart: The link is up on the bio page now, if you haven't already found it. Ff.net was just being slow. I'm glad that you're okay with what's going on, and that you're enjoying the story. I'm not sure if 'sick individual' is a phrase I'd use to describe you, me, or any other person that writes torture fics. I'm more tempted to say that we like exploring the other aspects of life.  
  
TZ: Wow, I hadn't heard from you in a while... welcome back! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Yugi is usually the victim in most stories, so I figured that there'd be no point in me doing it too. Kaiba seemed like a better idea. Thanks for the candy! I think I got a concussion from where it landed on my head.  
  
Miss Lous: Thanks for the kind words. I seem to have a way to get everyone I use in my stories into some kind of trouble. I don't think I could help it even if I tried. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
Aura Black Chan: You don't have to read the deleted scene. What happened is pretty explanatory even without reading the actual scene. I didn't want to force anyone into reading something they didn't want to, which is why I posted the full chapter somewhere else.  
  
Hobbit13: You're right, the joke wouldn't be very funny. In my defense, it's not that I've been trying to get one of them raped in any of my stories; it's that I have lived life enough to know that rape happens more often than most people think. You really think that No Kinen Ni was harder to get through than this one? Wow... I had absolutely no trouble writing that particular scene, but last chapter of this story was just torture. Don't worry, my love for the characters will come later, when they have to deal with everything. Thanks for the review!  
  
Ieyre: In answer to your first question: no, it probably wasn't really necessary, but it's where the story ended up. It wasn't planned, but it fits. It also fits with what's to come, but you can't see that, since you don't know where the story is going. The answer to your second question is addressed in my author's notes.  
  
Tsuki Koumori Ryu: Umm, they'd throw rotten veggies at me because they thought I was horrid and immoral? Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad that you are enjoying the story and I hope this update wasn't too long in coming.  
  
Deranged black kitten of doom: The other version is just a lot more descriptive, even though it never really gets graphic. You don't have to read it to get the gist of what's going on. Thanks for the candy! I'm going to gain 10 pounds if I don't stop eating it.  
  
Yuki Tsukihana: Welcome to the crazy world of my dark fanfics. I'm glad you're enjoying this one so far. I have been neglecting Ryou and the rest of them back in Japan, but I'll get to them pretty soon. I've been thinking about Gozaburo learning how to manipulate an item. That might be pretty interesting. In answer to your question: I started writing YGO fanfic before I even knew there was an original Japanese version. I didn't know what anime was until much later, and by the time I'd watched the Japanese version, I had already written two stories using English names. I didn't want to ruin continuity by changing to Japanese names, and I'm too lazy to write Jounouchi over and over again. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
Vappa: Thank you very much for your kind words. They mean a lot to me. I totally agree with you: less is more in a lot of cases, and this is one of them. There will be flashbacks which will be a bit graphic, but not enough to warrant anything separate. To answer your question: yes, I will be able to link both stories up again. The rape will have something to do with how that happens and hopefully I can write it well enough for it to make sense.  
  
Restlesspirit: Thanks! I'm very glad that you enjoy the chapter, and the story. Thanks for the compliment too. It put a big smile on my face.  
  
Leland Lancaster: hangs head in shame I know I'm cruel... but I love the characters... really I do!  
  
Amiasha Ruri: Good! I think I've had to dodge more from this chapter than from anything else I've ever written. Yami is going to be absolutely furious. I think that's when it's going to come to blows for them. Thank you for the review!  
  
MollyJean: I'm glad you liked the chapter. No, the deleted scene wasn't really graphic, but it still seemed quite strong to me. To answer your question: Yugi doesn't really know how he summoned the shadow realm. It was done mostly out of desperation and desire to stop what was being done to Kaiba.  
  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
Nenya85: Thanks! I liked writing that last scene, even if it was a bit tainted with what had happened before.  
  
Shizu: I'm glad you liked the chapter, even though I'm sure the characters probably want something else, probably something happier and funnier. It's too bad they don't get what they want, right?  
  
Karaesa: catches candy and looks at growing pile with sparkling eyes I love my readers! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! To answer your question: Bakura is not unintelligent at all. When he finds out that not everything is as it seems, he will find a way to make it work to his advantage, as all good villains do.  
  
Guardian angel of wolves: Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the story.  
  
Lauren Lack: I'm very happy that you enjoyed the story, and I hope this update wasn't too late in coming. Thanks!  
  
Saiyan Jedi: I'm updating, I'm updating! I wouldn't want you to give yourself a concussion or anything . I will check out your story.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did, the dub would be much better and would have aired on Adult Swim instead of Kids WB. I don't own Rurouni Kenshin either. If I did, the Jinchu arc of the manga would have been animated long ago. In both cases, I'm just borrowing characters and/or ideas... I promise to return them when I'm done.  
  
**WARNING**: There is a flashback in this chapter. It's not graphic, but it is disturbing. It doesn't warrant a higher rating, but I figure I'd warn you all anyway.

* * *

**  
Part 17: To Find the Lost**  
  
_The boy wandered down the long hallway, unsure of what he should do now. He walked slowly, staggering every few feet, his mind not on his surroundings. His mother had just been declared dead of an unknown illness, and no one had told him what had happened or why. He'd had to peek into their room to even find out that his mother was dead, and had run from the room immediately after he'd heard. He didn't know where he was headed; he just wanted to get away from his mother's dead body.  
  
He sniffled and then angrily wiped a stubborn tear that rolled down his cheek. He bit his lip to keep any more from falling. He was all alone in the world now, and he had to be strong and independent so that they wouldn't get rid of him. He had to let the adults know that he could take care of himself, could handle his own life, so that they'd keep him and maybe even train him. In the grand scheme of things, he was a nobody, and as such deserved no special attention. It didn't stop the boy from wishing that someone would pay attention, though.  
  
At that thought, the boy smiled bitterly. He looked down at his small hands and with a bit of concentration, managed to create a small ball of energy. He examined it for a long moment, standing in the middle of the hall, before the anger and pain that he'd been willing himself to forget came back to the forefront of his mind. He bit his lip even harder now to keep in the scream of helplessness and rage from leaving his throat. Instead, he ran out of the nearest exit, the ball of energy still cupped in his hands, and found himself in the middle of the Pharaoh's garden. He wasn't supposed to be there, because no one entered the garden unless the pharaoh extended an invitation. At the moment, however, the boy didn't care.  
  
He located the nearest tree and let the energy go, smiling in satisfaction as it hit the tree and severed a couple of its branches. The release of energy left him drained, and he stumbled over to the fountain in the middle of the garden. He collapsed beside the fountain, his arms hanging over the short edge, his fingers touching the cool water. The late afternoon sun reflected off the water and into his face, making his blue eyes sparkle. His long, brown hair flopped into his face, but the boy made no move to push it aside.  
  
"Why did you both leave me?" he asked the water. "Mom, I miss you. Dad, I miss you too."  
  
The boy sniffled again as memories of his father entered his mind. He hadn't known the man well, because he'd been killed in battle when the boy had been very young, but what he'd heard from his mother had made him idolize the man. His father was a war hero, he'd given his life for Egypt and the Pharaoh, and the boy could see no greater honor than that.  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
The boy whirled around, his eyes wide in fear. The gravity of his mistake sank in the moment he saw who was standing at the other end of the garden, scowling at him. The priests would probably put him to death for daring to enter the pharaoh's territory. At that thought, the boy's heart stopped beating so frantically. Maybe that would be the best. After all, if he were dead, he'd be with his mom and dad again.  
  
"Seto, is that you?"  
  
Seto got to his knees and bowed so that his forehead touched the ground in front of him.  
  
"I'm sorry, Priest Akunadin. I didn't mean to intrude. I just..." Seto trailed off. What could he possibly say in his defense? Certainly the priest would not believe him regardless of what excuse he gave.  
  
Priest Akunadin did not reply to Seto's apology. Seto stayed in his bow, but could hear the priest moving about the garden. Would the priest chop off his head while he bowed?  
  
"Did you do this?"  
  
Seto finally raised his head, taking the priests' question as permission to stand. He looked at the tree branches that lay strewn about from the force of the energy he'd thrown at it and cringed. If he had somehow escaped getting killed for trespassing, he would certainly be executed for damaging the pharaoh's property. He couldn't lie, so he merely lowered his head.  
  
"Yes, I did."  
  
The priest did not comment further. Instead, he came to where Seto stood and put his hand on Seto's chin, pulling the boy's face up to where he could see it.  
  
"Your mother died today, did she not?" the man asked, his face expressionless, his eyes devoid of emotion.  
  
Seto nodded again, desperately fighting the tears that threatened to overwhelm him at the reminder of his state of loneliness. He managed to choke off his emotion, locking it up in a distant corner of his mind, and figured that since he was already in trouble, he might as well say his piece.  
  
"What are you going to do with me?" Seto asked.  
  
Priest Akunadin frowned at the directness of the question, but he did not seem displeased. In fact, he didn't seem to be feeling anything at all. He circled the tree Seto had damaged, carefully inspecting the fallen branches.  
  
"You just turned eight, correct?"  
  
Seto nodded again, surprised that the priest knew so much about him. Why would he care?  
  
"You have potential, Seto. Your magic is raw, but powerful. If guided correctly, you could grow up to be a very powerful man."  
  
Seto frowned. What was the priest talking about? All he'd wanted to know was if he were going to be killed or not.  
  
"Would you be interested in that, Seto? Do you want to learn to control and use your magic?" Priest Akunadin asked, his eyes shinning eerily in the waning sunlight.  
  
Seto's eyes widened in surprise at the question. He'd been thinking about being trained just a few moments ago, but hearing it spoken out loud made it seemed that much more unrealistic.  
  
"Would that mean that I could stay in the palace?" Seto asked.  
  
Priest Akunadin laughed, but the man's expression did not change. "Of course you can, Seto. You have no other family, except for the people you know here. Where else would you go?" Before Seto had a chance to say anything, the priest continued. "Besides, you could keep the pharaoh's son company. He's younger than you, but I'm sure you wouldn't mind."  
  
"So I'm not going to be executed?"  
  
Priest Akunadin turned to him, his eyebrows raised. "What makes you think that? You're just a child."  
  
Seto shrugged and pointed at the tree he'd maimed.  
  
"Don't worry about that, Seto. No one has to know."  
  
_

* * *

_  
"Don't worry about that, Seto. No one has to know."  
  
"No one has to know? You're telling me to betray the pharaoh, and yet you say that no one has to know?"  
  
Seto turned on Priest Akunadin, his tone reflecting the disbelief he felt. How could the older priest, who had served with Yami's father, be asking him to betray everything he'd grown up to respect and cherish? With what right did he now ask Seto to use his powers, his influence, as the High Priest and turn them against Yami?  
  
"No one will ever know. If you and I plan this carefully, you can slowly work your way to the throne. You and Yami have grown up together, and he has enough confidence in you and your abilities to have appointed you High Priest. It wouldn't take much to use that trust to your advantage and overthrow him."  
  
Seto shook his head as he paced the length of his small work room.  
  
"Besides," Priest Akunadin continued, "being pharaoh is within your right."  
  
That stopped Seto and he turned once again to the priest.  
  
"What do you mean, it's within my right? Pharaohs are chosen because they have inherited the right to rule Egypt; they are blood descendants of the pharaohs before them. I have no royal blood in my veins, Akunadin. My father was a soldier and my mother an aid to the queen. I have no more right to the throne than you do."  
  
Priest Akunadin's eyes lost their focus for a moment, and Seto saw a flash of anger, resentment and bitterness cross the older man's features, before he regained control of himself and turned to the high priest.  
  
"Not everything is as it seems, Seto, always remember that."_

* * *

High Priest Seto's eyes snapped open, his breathing quick and erratic. He looked around, expecting to be in his work room, but found himself on his bed in his quarters instead. It took him a moment to regain his equilibrium after the disturbing flashes of memory he'd just had, and when he did, the events of the afternoon became clear in his mind. He had seen who had attacked them and was very surprised that he hadn't been taken. After all, the leader of that particular group of bandits had a vendetta against him. It would have been easy for him to take full advantage of the fact that he was unconscious and helpless...  
  
Seto's thoughts trailed off as he realized what probably had happened. His double and Yugi had been with him when they'd been attacked. What if the bandits hadn't bothered to look for him because they thought they already had him? If that was the case, then they probably hadn't bothered to stop and look for Yami either. The thought made Seto's already queasy stomach churn in dread. He had to get to Yami, if Yami was even in the palace, and find out what had happened.  
  
He sat up carefully, grateful when he didn't suffer any ill effects. He got to his feet and within minutes, was out of the room in search of the pharaoh.

* * *

_  
He couldn't see them, but he heard them. Gruff voices grunting and yelling, laughing and cheering. He felt them too, as they pressed in around him, several touching him at the same time, their hands unwanted on his skin. His body was being used and manipulated without his consent. He wanted to get away from the hands, away from the noise and away from the pain, but he couldn't. He was being held down by a force he couldn't overcome, quickly losing his ability to fight, his will to hang on._  
  
Seto Kaiba's eyes snapped open, and it took all of his self control to keep his body from reacting to the memory. He held himself perfectly still, his hands clutching the rough cloth he was lying on. When he regained his sense of reality, he relaxed the muscles he had tensed, wincing as pain returned. As long as he was still, he could pretend that nothing had happened, that he was just resting. When he moved, however, he could not fool himself. The initial numbness had begun to wear off, and he was now acutely aware of the damage that had been done to him.  
  
The late afternoon sun was at his back, but it did nothing to warm him. He was shivering, despite the heat of the air and the warm, semi-wet sand around him. He took a deep breath and let his head fall back onto Yugi's coat, which was serving as his pillow. Yugi had tried to use the puzzle to heal him earlier in the afternoon, but had not been able to. He hadn't known why, and had been very disappointed in his failure.  
  
Thoughts of Yugi made Kaiba remember the conversation he'd had with the younger duelist, the one that had sealed their secret in this place for all eternity.  
_  
  
__"This never happened."  
  
Yugi turned to him, confusion clear in his expressive, violet eyes.  
  
"What do you mean, this never happened? It did happen, Kaiba."  
  
Kaiba shook his head and swallowed to moisten his parched and sore throat.  
  
"No, it didn't. I have no desire for anyone else to know about what transpired here, Yugi," Kaiba said with difficulty, every word pronounced slowly and carefully as to make Yugi understand his intention. "I doubt that you want anyone else to know what you had to do here, no more than I want anyone to know the reason why you did what you did. It's best for the both of us if this stays here, in this forsaken place in the middle of the Egyptian desert, and in our own minds, for the rest of our lives."  
  
Yugi regarded him for a long moment, pondering what he'd said. His fingers loosened around Kaiba's wrist, which he'd been examining, but he caught himself and set the wrist gently down on Kaiba's lap so as not to further injure it. His fingers then strayed to the Millennium Puzzle around his neck, and he winced at whatever was going through his mind. Finally, Yugi spoke.  
  
"Kaiba, you need medical attention. If you don't get it, you could have serious complications from what happened."  
  
Kaiba sighed, but was ready with an answer. After all, he'd had more than enough time to come up with one.  
  
"Look at me, Yugi, and look at yourself. We look like we've been beaten up. There's no reason to tell anyone that anything more happened. Besides, we're not really here. Our bodies are back in our time, healthy and whole. What transpired here can be locked away in our minds and never remembered."  
  
Yugi was silent. It seemed to Kaiba as if he were fighting with himself about what course of action they needed to take. Kaiba knew that Yugi wouldn't want anyone to know that he'd killed, which was what he was counting on. As long as Yugi had something to hide, he'd be more willing to go along with Kaiba's suggestion.  
  
"We are here, Kaiba. What happened did happen. One look at you, one look at the bodies littered around, is enough proof that it did happen. We can't pretend that it didn't."  
  
Kaiba sighed. "I'm not asking you to pretend it didn't happen, Yugi. I'm asking you to never mention it again. We can both do that, can't we? There is no need for Yami or anyone back home to ever know about this."  
  
Yugi looked around at the bodies they hadn't yet moved. His eyes glazed over for a moment and he shivered. He took a deep breath, and turned back to Kaiba.  
  
"Okay, Kaiba. I won't tell anyone about what happened here if you won't."  
  
Kaiba smiled slightly. "It's a deal then?" he asked and held out his good hand.  
  
Yugi looked at the hand, and then shook it slowly. "Yes, it's a deal."_  
  
That handshake had sealed it, and it had led to what Yugi was currently doing.  
  
In the distance, Kaiba could see Yugi dragging the bodies of the men he'd killed into shallow graves that he'd dug for them. Yugi had said that the least the men deserved was a burial, to which Kaiba had disagreed. The men deserved nothing but the death they'd received, a death that had been too painless in his eyes. Kaiba had fallen asleep contemplating whether or not to go see the faces of his attackers, which had lead to his bad dreams. He should go see them, to at least have faces to curse for what had been done to him. A part of him wanted nothing more than to forget the whole thing, but the pain in his body made it difficult for him to do that. Kaiba figured that anger was better than despair and self pity, so he carefully got to his knees and then on to his feet.  
  
He made his way to Yugi slowly, cursing himself for his weakness with every step. He felt tired, weak, and light headed. Every step became more difficult than the last, and he stumbled repeatedly, further aggravating his injuries. He should be better than this, should be able to put the pain on the back of his mind and function as he normally would, and he hated himself for not being able to do so. The anger helped to manage the pain, and was the only thing to keep him going. He had to be able to hold his own, because it was bad enough that he had to rely on Yugi as much as he had been. Relying on anyone was a concept foreign to Kaiba, and relying on Yugi was not something he wanted to do for long.  
  
"Kaiba, you shouldn't be up and around," Yugi said as he spotted Kaiba.  
  
Kaiba ignored Yugi. Instead, he walked over to the nearest dead body. The sun was shinning in such a way as to block the man's identity from him, but it didn't really matter who it was. They were all guilty.  
  
As he stopped next to the man, it finally dawned on Kaiba who he was looking at.  
  
_"How does it feel now, Priest?" the man half said, half grunted as he began the attack.  
_  
The voice echoed in Kaiba's head as the images flooded his brain._  
  
"I'm going to make you hurt as much as your guard hurt my sister."  
  
Kaiba was left breathless as the pain flooded his senses. He struggled, he screamed, but nothing got him away from the blinding pain. The man's position brought his head to within inches of Kaiba's. Kaiba moved his head to the side to avoid looking at his attacker, but the man's beefy hand grabbed his chin and turned his head back to face him.  
  
"I want you to see my face, Priest," the man growled as each thrust brought his face even closer to Kaiba. "I want you to see my scared face for the rest of your life. I want you to remember this for the rest of your life. Imagine a young, defenseless woman going through this, Priest, knowing that you could have prevented it but chose not to. Feel what it's like to be helpless and in pain and remember it."  
  
When Hori was finished, another took his place. Hori took the place of the man who had been holding his arms above his head, and used his knees to keep Kaiba's hands immobile. He took Kaiba's head in both of his hands and held it so that all Kaiba could see was Hori's face.  
  
"You will always remember me," Hori said, and then urged the man who had taken his place to move harder, to cause more damage.  
  
Kaiba continued to struggle and yell, and could feel tears fall down the sides of his face. Hori took his thumbs and wiped the tears away.  
  
"That's it, Priest, cry. Even if you manage to kill me, I will die with the satisfaction that I broke you and made you cry, and that my face will be forever imprinted in your memory."_  
  
"Kaiba?"  
  
He heard Yugi's voice as if through a long tunnel and had to forcefully drag himself away from the hell his memories had become.  
  
"Yes, Yugi?" Kaiba asked, his voice hollow and empty.  
  
"Are you okay? What are you remembering?"  
  
Kaiba turned away from the man at his feet. "There is nothing to remember, Yugi."  
  
He walked away from the man, away from the impromptu burial site, and would have made it all the way back to his earlier spot if Yugi's voice hadn't stopped him.  
  
"You should have this, Kaiba," Yugi said as he came to stand in front of him. He held out a fat, leather pouch in his bleeding, dirty hands, and Kaiba took it.  
  
"One of the men had it. It's full of water."  
  
Kaiba looked at the thing in his hands, fighting the urge to drop it because it had come from one of them. He looked at Yugi, who was looking at him with concern.  
  
"You need the water, Kaiba. You lost a lot of blood, and it's going to take a long time to replenish that in these conditions. Drink that, rest, and I'll be over to try the healing again when I finish."  
  
Kaiba hesitated a moment. On the one hand, he didn't want anything that belonged to the men. On the other, he was practical enough to realize that Yugi was right and he did need the water. He thought it over for a moment, and then held the pouch out to Yugi.  
  
"Kaiba, don't fight me on this."  
  
Kaiba shook his head. "I'm not, but you need the water too. Take a drink, and I'll take it with me. We'll both share it, okay?"  
  
Yugi nodded. He took the pouch and took a small sip of the water and then held it out for Kaiba to do the same. Yugi smiled slightly, and then headed off to finish his task.  
  
Kaiba walked back to where he'd been resting and carefully sat back down.  
  
He was not going to give that bastard the satisfaction of getting to him. He would forget this incident ever happened, and deny that man his revenge.

* * *

Yami stood at the edge of the balcony in the throne room, gazing down at the currently empty area. The sun had finally vanished, leaving the bright moonlight to illuminate the night. Without artificial lights to mar the effect, the moonlight was bright and illuminated the area very well. This is where his people had stood while he'd addressed them. He had realized that when he'd first come out onto the balcony, and had been glad to finally have something of himself, of his past, to hold on to. He'd gone back into the throne room and had studied it, willing his fuzzy memory to clear up, to give him more than what he had. It had worked, as he'd managed to remember a few things, mostly meetings with either merchants or his priest, mundane things, but to Yami, they were like pieces of gold.  
  
When he looked at his double, Yami couldn't help but feel a bit of jealousy. It was an idiotic thing, because they were both the same person, but that didn't stop the emotion from existing. Pharaoh Yami knew everything about his life and was still living it, while Yami was just a shell, more versed in 21st century Japan than his native Egypt.  
  
"Yami."  
  
Startled at the unexpected voice, he turned around to face the high priest.  
  
"Seto, you're awake." Yami was surprised to see the high priest up and about, since the healers had anticipated that he'd be unconscious for a few days.  
  
The man nodded. He'd changed out of the plain, white robe he'd been wearing into a more appropriate robe, and he held the Millennium Rod tightly in his hand. He seemed focused, healthy, and determined.  
  
"Yes, I woke up a while ago. Do you know where the pharaoh is?"  
  
Yami shook his head. He'd known Seto Kaiba long enough to be able to read him, and reading Kaiba's double was no different. The priests' posture was stiff and his eyes kept shifting to search the room, as if he felt he was wasting his time with idle conversation.  
  
"I do not know where he is. Would you mind telling me why you are so impatient? What do you know that I do not?"  
  
The priest narrowed his eyes, and then seemed to resign himself to the explanation.  
  
"We must find Seto Kaiba and Yugi. They are in danger, and we have to find them now."  
  
Yami's eyes widened. He had not been expecting the priest to say that.  
  
"I told the pharaoh we should have gone to look for them immediately, but he refused to leave without you. He said that you are a type of healer and that we would need you."  
  
Seto nodded. "It is very likely that Seto Kaiba and Yugi will be injured when we find them. That is why we need to leave right now, after we find the pharaoh."  
  
Yami nodded, finally having someone who saw things his way. If the pharaoh refused to help, then he'd go out on his own to try to find his partner and Kaiba. The priests' words were enough to make his previous worry seem insignificant, and he was not going to wait any longer.  
  
"I could not agree more."

* * *

Yugi struggled to concentrate and focus on the task ahead. His constant shivering did not help, and no matter how often he told himself that physical discomforts did not matter, his mind just would not believe it.  
  
The temperature had dropped dramatically when the sun had set, leaving Yugi and Kaiba in almost complete darkness until the moon had made its appearance. He could now see, but the temperature only continued to drop as the night wore on. Kaiba had lost consciousness due to his body's constant shaking causing him pain, and Yugi was glad that at least one of them could escape this frozen hell. He'd managed to get Kaiba off the cloth and on the sand, and had covered him with the cloth he'd been laying on. He hadn't taken his coat back, content on leaving it under Kaiba's head, which meant that he was dressed in only his sleeveless shirt.  
  
For hours now, he'd been attempting to do with Kaiba what he'd done with Yami back home, after Gozaburo had whipped him with the riding crop in Kaiba's house. He had said a spell then, which had made the healing properties of the puzzle activate. He had said the same spell earlier that evening, but it had not worked as it had back home. Yugi wasn't sure what he was doing wrong, but he knew that he had to keep trying. For Kaiba's sake, and for his own, he had to succeed.  
  
Yugi closed his eyes once again, and gently laid both hands on Kaiba's arm. He was careful with Kaiba, not wanting to wake him abruptly and possibly frighten him. Yugi knew what areas he needed to heal first, but he was having a hard time focusing and directing the power of the puzzle. He'd managed to summon the shadow realm to kill, but could not summon it now to heal.  
  
Sighing in frustration, Yugi shook his head and erased all thoughts from his mind. He pictured the textbook from his Biology class. Specifically, he pictured the photo of the human body he'd seen when studying for his last test. He made the picture grow until it was proportional to the size of Kaiba's body. He imagined his hands hovering over the points he wanted to heal and then recited the healing spell once again.  
  
At once, he felt his hands warming up and saw them glowing with a golden light. His entire body became bathed in the warmth of the puzzle, and his bodily discomforts were forgotten. He focused his thoughts and guided the golden light in his hands over Kaiba's body. He became aware of the pain Kaiba was in, but could feel it lessening as the spell did its work.  
  
Yugi worked until his energy was spent. His eyes snapped open, and he became aware of the bitter cold once again. His breathing came in short gasps, and he felt disoriented. He tried to move away from Kaiba, but lost his balance and ended up on the sand beside the elder teenager, his head resting on one of Kaiba's legs. Yugi curled into a tight ball as one of his hands clutched Kaiba's pants leg, while the other clutched the Millennium Puzzle. Getting up was out of the question, so Yugi resigned himself to his fate, closed his eyes and passed out.

* * *

Bakura gasped as a sudden burst of magic buffeted him, almost knocking him off his horse.  
  
He had lost the trail of the pharaoh's magic hours ago, but had not given up the search. The fact that it was dark and freezing didn't faze him one bit. After all, thieves worked better at night. He'd headed in the general direction of the magic he'd felt earlier, but hadn't gotten to the pharaoh's position. He couldn't think of a reason why the pharaoh would have been out in the desert to begin with, and had wracked his brain to come up with any possible resting sites for the pharaoh's caravan. Bakura knew that the pharaoh always traveled with a lot of guards and companions, so spotting the entourage should have been easy. So far, Bakura had found nothing.  
  
Now, however, he felt the magic once again. He was very close to it. As he directed his senses and his eyes in the direction the magic had come from, Bakura realized that he had been heading towards one of the bandit camps. Why would the pharaoh be there? Could he have been captured? More importantly, was it worth his time and effort to wade into a camp full of bandits for one man?  
  
Bakura chuckled. Of course it was worth it.

* * *

Formatting = good looking chapters. Now I can get them to look like they do to me when I write them... yay! Must get used to it first.  
  
Note to those of you who are Rurouni Kenshin fans: My favorite scene in the first OVA is when Hiko comes upon the burial ground with all the crosses, then sees Shinta standing in front of those three rocks, his hands dirtied from where he dug graves and buried the bandits and slavers. When I was writing the scene with Yugi and the bandits, I kept thinking about that scene, and it influenced me to write Yugi doing the same thing to the bandits. It just seemed fitting, you know?  
  
Coming up: We go back to Japan, finally! Gozaburo makes some deals, Mokuba does some more scheming. Then in Egypt, Bakura finally finds his target. 


	18. Too Little, Too Late

Greetings and welcome to the next chapter of the story. Thank you all so very much for your reassurances and words of encouragement. I'm very grateful to you all and feel much better about continuing to write this.  
  
Reviews:  
  
**TheDelphi**: Thank you very much for your words of encouragement. They mean a lot to me, and I'm glad to know that you'll continue on with the story.  
  
**Black blade**: You bring up many important questions, which shall be answered in the next couple of chapters. Actually, you'll find out about Bakura in this chapter. Stay tuned!  
  
**S.K. Hashmi**: You're excellent at pep talks! Thank you very much. To answer your question: I won't be referring to Yami as Atem because of the fact that it's a spoiler for a major arc of the Japanese anime and manga. Also, since I use English names, it would be out of place to use his proper name, since in the dub, his name is Yami grumbles at the stupidity of the dub. I'll just refer to him as Pharaoh Yami. About the yaoi: I considered it at some point in the story, because it really seemed to fit in with what I was writing. At this point, especially after what happened to Kaiba, I'd have to really think about it. So the answer is that I'm not really sure, but I'm leaning towards not doing it.  
  
**Treska Silverflame**: Thank you for the support and for your kind words. They mean a lot to me, and I'm happy to know that you have enjoyed reading all of my stories. Interesting suggestion about "Paint the Sky with Stars". I think that there originally was supposed to be a sequel, but I got busy with the other stories and lost track of it. I'll consider it after I finish at least one of the ones I'm currently working on.  
**  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon**: Thank you very much!  
  
**Mimiheart**: Yeah, the cold does seem to get to you, doesn't it? It did to me as I was writing. I've never been to the desert myself, but I've read that it gets pretty chilly at night.. Thanks for the support! I really appreciate it.  
  
**Hikari Motomiya**: Thank you for reviewing. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
**Ashla**: Cool, you're just starting with the story. I'm glad you liked the first chapter, and I hope that you like the rest of it as well.  
  
**MollyJean**: Yup, great minds definitely think alike. I absolutely adore that scene with Shinta and always wanted to see him actually burying the bodies. To answer your questions: Kaiba, Yugi and Yami are sharing Yugi's body back in the present time. It was their souls that got sent back to the past, and because they had no physical bodies, the puzzle created bodies for them while they're in the past. As a result, the bodies they have are only borrowed, and when they go back to their time, they'll be back in Yugi's body. Whatever injuries they've suffered physically won't last, but the emotional impact of those physical injuries can't be erased. As for the other one: Yami and Yugi's link has been severely weakened by the fact that Kaiba has come into the picture. He's sharing that with them as well. Yami is going to be aware of some things going on with Yugi. You'll understand more when you read this chapter.  
**  
Tainted Fortune**: I'm glad you're enjoying the story! Quite a few people felt the same as you when I first introduced the doubles. It was confusing even to me, but as the chapters have gone on, I've gotten to like them more. I'm glad that you do too.  
  
**Ms. Zeal**: Ah, yes, the book. I totally forgot that the Pharaoh was going to give it to Yami. I had a cool scene planned with that, but I totally forgot. That reminds me, I forgot to add it to this chapter too. I'm going to go do that right now, before I forget. Well, now it doesn't fit in with this chapter, so it'll have to be the next one. Thank you for bringing it up!  
**  
MotherChowGoddess**: You're not writing that story anymore? How come? This particular subject is very touchy for me, and I got tired of reading other stories that dealt with it as if it was no big deal. The scars rape leaves last a lifetime, and I wanted to write something that portrayed that. It's not like I'm writing about anything that's not true. Thank you for your support, and best of luck on your story. I doubt it's frivolous at all.  
  
**PyroDragon2006**: No harm done, so don't worry about it. I do appreciate the apology though. It does make me feel better, and I am glad that you're sticking with the story. Thanks!  
  
**Restlesspirit**: YAY, candy! That'll definitely keep me awake tonight. Thanks!  
**  
Amiasha Ruri**: I adore Seto and Akunadin. Just knowing what their relationship is and that Seto has absolutely no clue about it is enough to make me want to read more about them. They get some pretty cool scenes in the manga and I can't wait to see it in the anime. Thanks for the review!  
**  
Shadowwaker**: Kaiba with the snake? That would be funny... you're right, though, I doubt he'd do it. Thanks!  
**  
Kaoaniz**: A happy ending, huh? If you happen to have read either of the two stories I've completed, you'd have your answer. If you haven't, then I won't spoil it for you! I'm very glad you're enjoying the story and I appreciate the review!  
**  
Tuuliiki**: ff.net eats reviews sometimes. There have been a few occasions when I don't get the review e-mailed to me, but I usually see it as I'm doing the replies. I didn't see yours. Believe me, the turn chapter 16 took was surprising to me too. That wasn't something I planned, and as I was writing the chapter, it just happened. Of course, to warrant me keeping that version and not one of the other two I wrote, I had to find a way to use it. Luckily I did, and it changed the direction the story was supposed to go. I hope that it will turn out better. Thank you for your kind words and support. It makes me feel a whole lot better.  
  
About the formatting: ff.net now was a QuickEdit feature that lets you format and add line breaks to the chapter. That's what I used to get the chapter to look the way it did.  
**  
TZ**: Yup, Bakura definitely equals bad news. I don't think the poor dude ever knew how to be good. Well, he did when he was a kid, before they killed all the people of his village. The sucking of the venom was pretty funny! I just couldn't picture Yami doing that, but I guess he had to if he wanted to save his friend. Mana is adorable and she seems to be quite clingy with the pharaoh. Lucky girl... . The flashbacks are all great! Did you see the one with Seto and Kisara in Wednesday's episode? Little Seto looked adorable in his peasant's clothing and long hair.  
**  
Ieyre**: Thanks for reviewing!  
**  
AG the master**: thanks! I hope this wasn't too long of a wait.  
**  
Tsuki Koumori Ryu**: Ohh, an excited reader! That's contagious, you know... . I'm very glad that you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**Saiyan Jedi**: Thanks for the review. I haven't had a chance to check out your story, but I sill asap.  
**  
Solitaire**: Yup, this is what I meant. It was a couple of comments that really had me wondering if I should have posted the chapter at all, but everyone has been so supportive that I feel better about the whole thing now. Thank you for the reassurance. I completely agree with what you said about most stories that do deal with rape. I have to admit that it was part of why when I had actually written the chapter, I wanted to keep it and go on from there. I want to do it the way I think it should be done.  
  
You're pretty close about what you said concerning the future of the story, and I will say that you're absolutely dead on about one thing: Priest Seto will find out. That's actually what's going to tie everything together in a few chapters and bring us back to Japan. In the mean time, Kaiba and Yugi are going to do their best to keep their secret. Umm.... Bakura is Bakura, evil to the core. You'll get your answer to that question when you read this chapter.  
  
Thanks again for the reassurance and kind words. I really appreciate it.  
**  
Yuki Tsukihana**: Awww, thank you so much for defending me. It's really sweet! Bakura is definitely in this chapter a bit more, so I hope you enjoy his scenes.  
**  
Aura Black Chan**: Wow... your review left me speechless. You so eloquently put everything I was trying to convey in that one chapter, and it's rewarding to know that it is apparent in the story. Thank you so much for that review. It made my day!  
  
**Jin**: That was very sweet of you. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
**  
Kir-chan**: I'm very flattered that I've influenced your writing style. I hope it's been for the better and I wish you the best of luck with your writing. Oops! You're right, it was a fire poker. In the manga, it's a riding crop and I was thinking about that as I wrote the chapter. Thanks for catching that and for the review!  
**  
Miss Lous**: It's hard to turn on the news and not have rape come up as the topic of a news item. We had a rapist last year in our apartment complex that broke into two apartments and raped two girls. They finally caught him, but while they were looking for him we were all scared of getting out.  
  
Thank you for your support! I really appreciate it. What about the art of the new arc don't you like? Just curious. The storyline seems to be going like the manga (except for Shadi in the puzzle and Seto and Kisara's past history). Raws are awesome... I've learned enough Japanese that I can understand half of what they say, but I hope to someday understand all of it.  
**  
Lightning Sage**: Thank you very much! I'm glad you're okay with the way the situation was handled and are still reading.  
**  
Karasea**: No forgiveness necessary. I'm glad that you're enjoying the way I write Bakura. I don't write him very often, so it's good to know that I'm getting it right.  
  
Mutou Yasu: Don't worry, you weren't the only one with that reaction. The situation does seem pretty grim at the moment, and it probably won't improve for a while, but hopefully it will improve at some point. Thank you for reviewing!  
**  
MsHobgoblin**: Thank you so much for your review and welcome to the world of YGO fanfic. I'm glad that you're enjoying my stories and thank you for your reviews to some of my other ones. I'm glad to provide a bit of entertainment and I hope that you continue to enjoy them.  
**  
Hobbit13**: You do have a good point about No Kinen Ni. That one was pretty depressing from the start and has yet to get better. Actually, that's part of the reason I haven't updated it in a while. I just seemed to have lost my inspiration for it. I know how it's supposed to end, but I can't think of what to write in the mean time.  
  
About this one: There is the one major angsty part of it, but not all of it is like this. I'm even trying humor once in a while to lighten it up, but I'm not sure how that's doing. Thank you so much for the review!  
**  
KatKid**: I know what you mean: I've lost track of a lot of stories in the past few month. I just either forget to check for updates or assume that I've already read the chapter. I'm happy to hear that you approve of the way the situation is being handled. It's not easy to write, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. Thanks!  
  
Wow... that was the most reviews I've ever gotten to a chapter. Thank you so much! You are all a wonderful group of readers, which keeps me writing. Cyber hugs to everyone If I happened to miss one, my apologies. It did not happen on purpose.  
  
Note: There is a flashback in this chapter. This one belongs to Mokuba and is based on a flashback I wrote for Seto in one of my other stories, No Kinen Ni. When I wrote the chapter, I thought that particular flashback belonged to this story. When I couldn't find it, I realized it was the other one. If you want to read the flashback from Seto's point of view, it's in chapter 10 of No Kinen Ni.  
  
On with the story. Enjoy!

* * *

**Part 18: Too Little, Too Late**  
  
Mokuba Kaiba led the way into the Kaiba property through the back, where he had earlier deactivated the security cameras that lined the back fence. It had been a simple matter to take Ryou's laptop, hack into the mansion's security system, and redirect the cameras to other parts of the grounds. If Gozaburo happened to be at home and monitoring the system, he would never know that there were intruders on the grounds. Mokuba had also deactivated the sensors that scanned for moving objects in the property to ensure that they could move about freely.  
  
"Where are we, Mokuba?"  
  
That was Tea. They had run into her on their way out of Ryou's house and she had insisted on coming along. She'd been very upset with them for not telling her about what was going on, but they'd explained that it had simply slipped their minds with everything else that was going on. The explanation they'd given her had helped, because it had also served to bring Ryou Bakura up to speed about everything that had happened. Mokuba still couldn't believe that Ryou had amnesia, but figured that with their current luck, it shouldn't surprise him. He was also glad that Joey had reverted back to his usual self. The elder teen no longer looked at him as if he wanted to bash his head in, for which Mokuba was grateful.  
  
"We're at the back of the property. The tunnel we just climbed out of runs the length of the property, but it will eventually connect to ones that Gozaburo knows about and will have by now secured. This way we can enter the mansion through the back door and move about the house through the lesser used corridors to hopefully avoid detection," Mokuba explained. "I doubt the staff has any idea that the person they've been dealing with is not my brother, so if they happen to see us, they shouldn't question my presence at the house. The security guards we'll have to avoid, though, since they are probably under orders to restrain me."  
  
"Do you really think Gozaburo told the guards to keep you prisoner in your own home? Wouldn't hey question Kaiba asking them to do that?" Joey asked.  
  
Mokuba shrugged. "The guards don't really question my brother, and I'm sure Gozaburo thought of some reason to get them to restrain me and keep me at the house if they spot me. We'll just have to avoid them so as not to find out what their orders are."  
  
He continued to lead the others, which in addition to Tea and Joey included Ryou and Mr. Moto, towards the mansion. He was halfway to the house when he spotted the barn where Gozaburo used to keep horses. Mokuba looked behind the barn, where a small shed now stood empty. Mokuba was looking at it now in the sunlight, but in his mind, he pictured it in the middle of the night, shrouded in darkness. He clearly remembered each and every time he'd sat by the door of the shed, keeping vigil as his brother was locked inside. Some nights, Seto would pound on the door and scream to be let out, while others he'd be so completely quiet that Mokuba wondered whether Seto was in the shed at all. The quiet times had become more and more frequent, and Mokuba had noticed that it was after that period of time when Seto had begun to change into the cold, reclusive, and distant person he was now. Mokuba had wanted to do so much for his brother then, but he'd been too young and too helpless to do anything but watch. He hadn't even been able to tell Seto that he'd been there; he'd only been able to offer comfort the morning after in whatever way he could.  
  
Six-year-old Mokuba knew that he'd get in trouble if he was caught wandering outside in the dark, in the middle of the chilly night, but the risk of being punished was worth the view of the cloudless sky above him. He had no doubt that Mr. Kaiba was already asleep and Seto was probably still studying, so as long as he was very quiet and didn't draw attention to himself, no one would notice.  
  
He liked it out here by himself, because he could run around and enjoy being a child without Mr. Kaiba sneering at him and yelling at him to stay still and behave. He didn't really like the man, but Seto said they needed to be good and listen to him so that their future would be secure. Mokuba didn't really know what that meant, but he trusted his older brother, so he did as Seto asked. Still, that didn't keep Mokuba from sneaking out and enjoying himself a little once in a while.  
  
The slamming of a door drew his attention to the mansion, and he was terrified to see someone walking towards him. Mokuba immediately ducked and hurried to the closest hiding spot: the shed behind the stables. Who could be coming out at this time of night? As the person got closer, Mokuba couldn't fight his curiosity any longer. He peeked from behind the shed and was shocked to see Mr. Kaiba walking straight for where he was. Mokuba would have hidden himself again, but the moonlight was bright enough to show that Mr. Kaiba wasn't alone; he was dragging Seto by the shirt. His brother was quiet, but Mokuba could see darker spots on his face, which usually meant that Seto was bleeding.  
  
"You will learn my company's history and method of operation by tomorrow morning, Seto. Everything you need to know is in that book, so I suggest you read it thoroughly," Mr. Kaiba said as he shoved Seto into the barn and threw a book in behind Seto.  
  
Mokuba heard the sound of chains being moved around, before a lock snapped into place. He was paralyzed with fear. What should he do? Mr. Kaiba took one last look at the barn and walked quickly back into the house.  
  
"Don't leave me in here! Please!"  
  
Mokuba's throat tightened at the sound of his brother's frightened plea.  
  
"I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba, it won't happen again, but please let me out!"  
  
Mokuba walked to the front of the barn in time to see the door move slightly as Seto tried to push it open. A big padlock held the chains in place, so no matter how hard Seto pushed, the door wouldn't budge. Not that Seto, at eleven years old, had that much strength.  
  
"Let me out!"  
  
Mokuba debated whether to say something to his brother. On the one hand, Mokuba knew that Seto would hate being seen like this, frightened and desperate. On the other, wouldn't his brother be reassured that he wasn't out here all alone?  
  
Seto sobbed inside the shed, and Mokuba felt tears falling down his cheeks in sympathy.  
  
"Why did you die?" Seto screamed suddenly, his voice full of sorrow, and Mokuba had no doubt that his brother was talking to their parents. "We didn't deserve this, so why did you leave us?"  
  
Mokuba dropped to his knees beside the front door and silently sobbed along with his brother.  
  
"I'm doing my best," Seto continued, his voice softer, but no less intense, "but it's not enough; it's never enough."  
  
Mokuba wanted to reach out and embrace his brother, tell him that it was enough; that he loved him for who he was and loved him for everything he'd done. All he managed was to put his hands on the wall of the barn directly in front of where Seto's voice came from.  
  
'I'm so sorry, big brother, that I can't do anything to save you from this, but I love you. I will always love you,' Mokuba thought.  
  
He put his head on his knees and wept.  
  
"Mokuba? Yo, kid, where'd you go?"  
  
Mokuba's head snapped around to find Joey looking at him strangely and waving a hand in front of his face. He grimaced, and waved Joey away.  
  
"I'm fine, just trying to figure out a way to get inside," Mokuba said, hoping that Joey was distracted enough not to notice the tears that had filled his eyes at the memory of the first time he'd sat out here with his brother.  
  
"Didn't you say we were going to use the back door?" Joey asked, apparently not entirely convinced with the answer Mokuba had given him. Joey was smarter than he looked, despite what Seto always said.  
  
"Yes, Joey, we're going to use the back door, but I'm trying to figure out where to go from there," Mokuba said and turned away from the shed.  
  
The group quickly and quietly made their way to the back of the Kaiba mansion, pausing only to make sure no one was in the room they entered, which turned out to be the kitchen, and headed upstairs. Mokuba took them to his room, Seto's room, and Gozaburo's old room, which were all empty. After his third failure, Mokuba stood in the middle of the hallway and shook his head.  
  
"Why would Gozaburo keep Yugi in one of the bedrooms?" Ryou asked. "Wouldn't he be better off keeping him in an out of the way room or in the basement? "  
  
"Gozaburo is conceited, and he probably thinks that no one would get inside the house," Mokuba explained. "Besides, Gozaburo is not going to want to go to the basement to talk to Yugi. Remember that he doesn't know that Yugi's soul is missing, so he'd assume that Yugi would eventually wake up."  
  
Mokuba paused. His eyes widened suddenly. He snapped his fingers and headed towards the opposite end of the hall away from Gozaburo's old bedroom. He reached a room at the end of the hall and cautiously pushed the door open. As soon as he saw the bed, he knew he'd found the right place.  
  
"This is Seto's old room, the one he had when Gozaburo was alive," Mokuba explained as they all filed into the room.  
  
"Yugi!" Mr. Moto exclaimed and ran to the bed, where his grandson was handcuffed to the headboard. "Why would that son of a bitch do this?"  
  
Joey, Tea, and Ryou voiced similar phrases of outrage, but Mokuba remained quiet. After all, he knew what Gozaburo was capable of; he'd seen it first hand.  
  
"We need to get him out of these handcuffs."  
  
Mokuba ignored the conversation and made his way to the bureau. On top of it lay the Millennium Ring. He looked around but found neither the Millennium Puzzle nor the books of spells Yami had originally been after. Mokuba picked up the ring and took it over to Ryou.  
  
"You might want this back."  
  
Ryou looked up and his eyes filled with delight as he took the ring from Mokuba. As soon as Ryou touched it, there was a flash of light, and Bakura appeared in front of them.  
  
"Where is he? Where is that good for nothing, cheating, gutless bastard?" Bakura demanded, looking around the room. "As soon as I get my hands on him, I'm going to kill him!"  
  
The group looked at the spirit with wide eyes, wondering what had gotten into him. Bakura seemed to realize that he had an audience, and he looked at each of them, until his eyes landed on Ryou.  
  
"Are you okay? You look pretty beat up."  
  
Ryou smiled. "I'm fine, Bakura. How are you? Who are you so mad at?"  
  
Bakura clenched his transparent fists in obvious distress. Mokuba couldn't recall when he'd seen the spirit so agitated.  
  
"Gozaburo Kaiba knows how to control the Millennium Items."  
  
"What?"  
  
Everyone looked at each other as they each replied in the same way. Finally, it was Mr. Moto who spoke.  
  
"What do you mean, he can control them?"  
  
Bakura turned to the old man and actually snarled at him.  
  
"Why do you think the puzzle isn't here? He has it. I don't know how, I don't know why, but while I was stuck in the ring, the man's soul came inside it to 'visit' me. He took great pleasure in telling me his plans, and I want nothing more than to chop his head off!"  
  
At the mention of the puzzle, Mokuba turned to Yugi's body on the bed and noticed that he wasn't wearing the puzzle.  
  
"Bakura is right. Yugi isn't wearing the puzzle and I couldn't find it anywhere else," Mokuba said.  
  
"So Bakura, if Gozaburo has the puzzle and knows how to use it, what does he plan to do with it?" Tea asked, her face reflecting her fear.  
  
Bakura growled at the group in general, before taking a step closer to Ryou.  
  
"He wants control, plain and simple."  
  
With those words, he banished back into the ring.  
  
Mokuba took a breath and slowly released. "That sounds like something Gozaburo would say."  
  
"So what does that mean?" Tea asked.  
  
She stood next to Joey and Ryou, who was slipping the ring back around his neck. Mr. Moto had left them and was sitting on the bed beside Yugi.  
  
"If Gozaburo has the puzzle, he can get rid of Seto and Yami in one try," Mokuba hypothesized. "Yugi wouldn't be a threat to him and neither would I. Seto is the one he's after, and if he has the puzzle and can control it, it'd be easy to get rid of him."  
  
The group was silent as they considered this new twist.  
  
"We have to get the puzzle back," Joey said.  
  
"Yeah, but how do we get Yugi out of here first?"  
  
The four of them turned to the bed again. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Frankly, I'm surprised at your sudden change of heart, Seto."  
  
Gozaburo Kaiba smirked and turned to the man sitting beside him in the limo.  
  
"What can I say, I finally found the error of my ways," he said, "I should never have gone against my father, Gozaburo's, teachings."  
  
Gozaburo smiled even wider at that statement. It had been easy enough to get in touch with some of his old business associates. The man currently accompanying him, Hans Schmidt, was an especially vicious military general in Germany who had been after the hologram program back before he'd had to put himself in the computer. Now, Gozaburo had something even better to offer the man.  
  
"I never would have imagined it. You made enough money with those silly games of yours, and you were so adamant about staying away from the military as soon as your father died," Hans continued. "It makes me wonder what you're up to."  
  
Gozaburo chuckled as they reached their destination, the lab where the mainframe he'd been trapped in resided.  
  
"In the end, money is the only concern, Hans, and who better than the military to do business with?"  
  
As soon as the limousine stopped, Gozaburo got out and motioned for Hans to do the same. They quickly entered the building and Gozaburo led them to a room beside the one with the mainframe. As soon as they entered, Hans stopped by the door, a gasp of surprise the only sound in the room.  
  
"What is this?" Hans asked, walking to the object in question and moving around it, examining it carefully.  
  
"That, Hans, is a virtual reality pod. It sends the user's mind to a completely virtual world that can be shaped by the one controlling the pod into anything he wants."  
  
Hans looked up, his eyes wide. "Anything?"  
  
Gozaburo nodded. He'd found Seto's lab by mistake when going through the Kaiba Corp. research records. He'd been even more surprised to find that Mokuba had neglected to restrict his access to his brother's lab. Gozaburo had been looking for Seto's holographic projector, which was what he and his adoptive son had fought over years ago, when Gozaburo told Seto he wanted to use it for military purposes. Seto had staged his little uprising shortly after, and Gozaburo had never gotten a chance to show it to his associates. He'd been very glad to see that not only had Seto improved the original design, but he'd gone beyond it and created a way for a person to be completely submerged in a virtual world. Hans Schmidt had been the first person Gozaburo contacted because he'd been the most interested in the hologram technology in the first place.  
  
"Imagine the possibilities, Hans. Information gathering can become as simple as the push of a button. All you would need to do is submerge your subject in a virtual reality where he would have no qualms about disclosing the desired information. No need to torture, no need to maim or kill or waste valuable time with captives who won't cooperate."  
  
Hans grinned and then laughed out loud. He walked up to Gozaburo and patted him on the shoulder.  
  
"Seto Kaiba, you are positively devious. Come, let's discuss the terms of the sale."

* * *

Seto Kaiba awoke to a strangled scream. It took him a while to realize that it had been his own. He looked around the unfamiliar surroundings but saw nothing but silvery darkness.  
  
As his senses returned to normal, he was horrified to discover that someone was lying across his thighs. The weigh was not heavy, but definitely present as the person's chest rose and fell in time to the person's breathing. A hand was similarly clutched around the fabric of his jacket. Visions of other hands tearing at his clothing and pushing on his legs surfaced, making his breath catch in his throat as his heart speed up. It took all of his control to keep himself from throwing whoever was clinging to him aside, until a soft, pained moan wrenched Kaiba out of his memories.  
  
'Yugi, it's only Yugi,' he told himself, forcing his lungs to take in the chilly, desert air.  
  
When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw that Yugi was on his side, his head resting on Kaiba's right thing, his right hand clutching Kaiba's coat around the waist. The unwanted contact sent shivers up Kaiba's spine, and he wanted nothing more than to push Yugi away so that he was no longer in contact with his body. He went as far as to reach down and lay his hand on Yugi's head to move it, but retracted it when he realized that Yugi was sweating and hot. In that same instant, Kaiba realized that while he was mostly covered by the makeshift blanket, Yugi was wearing nothing but a sleeveless shirt and fully exposed to the freezing night.  
  
'I have to get him covered up,' Kaiba thought, but dreaded moving.  
  
The freezing temperature of the desert already had his body aching, and he knew that if he moved, the full extent of the damage done would make its presence known. He'd been fighting it all afternoon, pretending that it didn't make him feel like he wanted to die every time he moved, and he didn't want to feel it anymore.  
  
Yugi shifted a bit, his other hand coming to rest against Kaiba's hip, and Kaiba flinched. He had to move. Kaiba was well aware that Yugi was not touching him on purpose, that the younger teen probably had no idea of his position, and that Yugi didn't mean him any harm, but that rationale meant nothing to Kaiba's survival instincts. He had to get the unwanted touch away from him, or he was going to react violently. He'd already hit Yugi once and he didn't want to do it again.  
  
Preparing himself for the agony he was sure would come with the movement, Kaiba brought himself slowly to a sitting position. He held his breath, waiting for the stabbing pain to come, and was surprised when it didn't. He still hurt badly, but it wasn't the sharp, devastating ache he'd felt the last time he'd been conscious. Experimentally, he moved his legs, wincing when he felt a ghost of the old pain. It wasn't bad enough that he couldn't push it to the back of his mind, however.  
  
Suddenly he remembered what Yugi had been trying to do. Kaiba looked down at the sleeping teen and realized that Yugi must have been able to heal him somewhat. He wasn't entirely healed, his wrist was still broken and it still hurt to move, but wasn't entirely crippled anymore. That thought alone brought a surge of confidence to Kaiba, and he gently pushed Yugi's upper body off his thighs. He got to his knees, wincing at the ache, but managed to keep himself together. After a bit of rest, he pulled himself to his feet. He swayed a bit, but managed to take a few, quick steps without feeling as if his legs were going to give out on him. He walked a bit further gaining stability with each step. He still hurt, but he had developed a high threshold for pain during his years with Gozaburo Kaiba, which would serve him well in this situation. He had no doubt that he could manage the remaining pain.  
  
"Please, stop hurting him."  
  
The softly spoken words froze him in his tracks. He remembered now. Yugi had been screaming at the men too. He'd been saying that phrase over and over again. Kaiba had barely been able to hear it over his own screams and the sounds of the men. He dropped to his knees, his hands wrapping around himself tightly. He wanted to forget. Oh, how he wanted to forget. He shook his head to keep the flashbacks out of his mind, but his body remembered, even if he didn't want to consciously recall the attack. His body began to tremble and a soft sob escaped his throat.  
  
"No, not now, not ever," Kaiba whispered, fighting his tears. His chest felt as if an elephant were sitting on it, and the pressure only increased the more he tried to fight his feelings. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to breathe. "Please just let me get through this," he said, his voice cracking with the effort it was taking to keep his control. "Just let us get home and I'll be fine."  
  
He was not going to give those bastards the satisfaction of his tears. Even if they were dead, he would not let them win by losing it over what they had done. He was stronger than that. He could fight this. He would fight it and win.  
  
"Kaiba?"  
  
He didn't move, didn't reply to the soft spoken voice. He heard, rather than saw, Yugi get to his feet and walk towards him. Yugi's body heat, heightened by the fever he was currently running, was unmistakable in the frigid night.  
  
"Don't touch me."  
  
Kaiba looked up to see Yugi's hand a mere inch from his shoulder. Even in the quickly fading moonlight, he saw the sadness and helplessness in Yugi's face.  
  
"I'm sorry," Yugi replied, taking his hand back and wrapping his arms around his shivering body. He ran his hands up and down his arms as if to warm them, as if he couldn't feel the heat his body was giving off. Yugi tilted his head to one side as if debating something with himself. After a moment, he seemed to come to a conclusion because he spoke.  
  
"It's okay to cry, Kaiba. You need to let it out eventually," Yugi said. "Even if you need me to walk far enough away so that I don't hear you, you need to let it out."  
  
Kaiba shut his eyes again and lowered his head. He would not accept Yugi's kindness because he could not. He was not going to take the offer Yugi had just made, because Yugi was wrong. He was fine and he would continue to be fine. Now that he could better deal with his physical pain, he would be just fine.  
  
"Your healing spell worked," was Kaiba's only reply.  
  
Yugi's eyebrow quirked up at the change in subject, but he let the previous topic drop.  
  
"I can move around better now."  
  
"Are you still in much pain?" Yugi asked.  
  
"It's manageable now, so you can stop worrying."  
  
Yugi looked at Kaiba, obviously not entirely convinced with what Kaiba had said. He nodded. "I'm glad that I was able to do some good."  
  
As they'd been speaking, the sun had slowly risen above the horizon, shading everything in purples, pinks, and gold. In the renewed light, Kaiba noticed that Yugi was flushed and that he was sweating, even though his body was still shivering. Dark circles grazed his eyes, and he looked exhausted.  
  
"Yugi, are you okay? What happened after I passed out? How much did that healing spell take out of you?"  
  
Kaiba got to his feet, noting in satisfaction that he didn't stumble. He walked to Yugi, putting the pain the steps brought him out of his conscious thought. He knew how to handle pain this way; after all, it had always helped him before.  
  
"I'm fine, Kaiba, don't worry. I just performed the healing spell, that's all."  
  
Now it was Kaiba's turn to raise an eyebrow. He understood the defensiveness, though. He'd been doing it himself earlier. If Yugi didn't want to talk about what was ailing him, Kaiba wasn't going to push. He wanted Yugi's discretion, which meant that he had to be discrete in return. He looked at Yugi's shivering form and sighed.  
  
"Let's go get your coat, Yugi, you look like you really need it.

* * *

The trail had gone cold again. Bakura cursed at every god he knew for letting him get involved in this wild goose chase. It was now early morning, and he generally did not like being out in the open desert during the day. It was hot and it was dangerous. He was about six hours away from his village, and even at a full out gallop, he couldn't make the trip back in less than four hours. If he was going to find the pharaoh, he had to do is soon so that he'd be back home during the worst of the desert heat.  
  
He brought his horse to a stop as he spotted a deserted camp. Horses still milled about the perimeter of the camp, tied to wooden stakes that had been anchored to the sand. Makeshift tents littered the place, but Bakura didn't see anyone up and about. He didn't sense any living ki in the camp either, which was strange.  
  
A sudden movement between two of the tents caught his eye. He focused on the person he'd seen, sending his senses out to feel for the familiar power. His smile turned into a wicked grin when he recognized the Millennium Puzzle's power. Jackpot. He'd found his quarry.  
  
As he got closer to the camp, he saw that the pharaoh was not alone. The priest was with him.  
  
"Perfect," Bakura chuckled. "I get to have fun with both of them today. It must be my lucky day!"  
  
He kicked his horse and the animal leapt forward. He aimed his charge for the small pharaoh, and laughed when both men turned to face him, both wearing expressions of utter disbelief.  
  
"Bakura," the pharaoh said.  
  
Bakura didn't give the pharaoh a chance to do much. Instead, he leaned down and grabbed the pharaoh by the strange garment he wore. He dangled the smaller man on one side as he forced the horse to go faster.  
  
"Yugi," came the startled cry from the priest.  
  
Bakura looked down at his captive and was shocked to see that the boy he held was not the pharaoh. He was very similar to the pharaoh, the features were almost identical, but he was not the same person, even if he was wearing the Millennium Puzzle. The boy looked flushed and tired, and Bakura knew that even if the boy struggled, he'd not be a problem.  
  
"Let me go!" the boy shouted.  
  
As the words left his mouth, the Millennium Puzzle shone brightly and a surge of power hit Bakura full in the chest. He gasped and out of reflex released his captive, who fell to the sand with a pained grunt. Bakura maneuvered the horse around for another pass. Even if the boy was not the pharaoh, he could obviously control the puzzle, which would serve Bakura very well if he could get his hands on it.  
  
As he neared the boy, something hit him on the side of the head. He turned his now bleeding head to see that the priest had thrown a piece of wood at him. Bakura growled and forgot the priest, going instead for the pharaoh look alike.  
  
"Stop it right there, Bakura," the priest yelled.  
  
Bakura turned. He was weary of the Millennium Rod, because it was one of the few items, along with the puzzle, that had any sort of effect on him. He was pleasantly surprised to discover, however, that the priest was not yielding it. Without it, Seto was no threat. He charged the boy again and laughed in delight when the boy started to run. He stumbled a few times and was no match for the speed of the horse. He easily reached down and grabbed a hold of the boy's strange clothing again and hauled him up on to the horse.  
  
"Let go! Yami, help!"  
  
Who was Yami? Bakura wondered as he tried to keep hold of the squirming boy in his hand. Without thinking, he hit the boy in the back of the head with his other fist, and smiled in satisfaction when he slumped, unconscious. Bakura put the boy in front of him and held on to him with his free hand, while guiding his horse away from the camp. The priest was shouting at him from behind, but Bakura paid him no heed.  
  
He already had what he'd come for.

* * *

_Yami, help!_  
  
Yami gasped and doubled over at the strong surge of sheer panic and weariness that coursed through him. Despite the emotional overload, he opened up his mind in hopes of getting more information on where Yugi was. What Yami got was fear and desperation.  
  
"Yugi, where are you?"  
  
Yami asked the question out loud, so he then repeated it in his mind, the same way he'd heard Yugi's original plea. No response came.  
  
_Yugi, where are you?_  
  
"Yami, what's going on?"  
  
Yami ignored the pharaoh, concentrating instead on projecting his mind into Yugi's, like he did back in Yugi's time when he wanted to take over the body. For a moment, he saw the world through Yugi's eyes. He saw a white horse and then he saw something else, something that made his blood go cold: a white haired thief.  
  
"Bakura," he said.  
  
"Bakura? What do you know of the thief?" Priest Seto asked. "Yugi and Kaiba are with Bakura?"  
  
Yami, having lost the vision and Yugi's presence, turned to the pharaoh.  
  
"I don't know about Kaiba, but Bakura definitely has Yugi."  
  
"Why?" the pharaoh asked.  
  
Yami's lips twisted into a snarl. "Why else, because Bakura thinks Yugi is you," he growled. "If we had only left sooner, Yugi would not presently be in danger."  
  
Priest Seto cleared his throat to stop the fight from breaking out. "I think I know where Bakura's village is."  
  
Both Yami and the pharaoh turned to look at him, surprised.  
  
"I've heard some talk around the marketplace, but I think I can find him."  
  
Pharaoh Yami nodded. "Good, then go tell the driver where to go."  
  
Yami watched the priest go, but all he could focus on was the fear and desperation he'd felt through his weak link with Yugi.  
  
"Please be okay, Yugi, please hang on. We'll get to you soon."

* * *

Next up: Kaiba tries to rescue Yugi, but ends up meeting up with someone else instead. Bakura tells Yugi a bit about his past. Mokuba and friends (sounds like a TV show, doesn't it?) try to get out of the mansion. 


	19. Separated

Greetings! As I sit here typing this, I have an ice pack on my left ankle (which is swollen to twice its original size) and my left knee (which is only swollen a bit). I had a rollerblading accident last Sunday and twisted my knee. How my ankle came to be swollen is still a mystery to me. If any of you recall (and were reading my stories last year at about this same time) I had to have my left arm in a sling for a month then after another rollerblading accident. I just have no luck. Either that or I'm very clumsy. Anyway, wish me luck in recovering! It's quite annoying to not be able to walk as fast as I want (I'm a bit on the impatient side). And of course, no rollerblading either. But I have more time to write (hence all the recent updates!).  
  
Reviews:  
  
**AG the Master**: Thank you very much! I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
  
**Mimiheart**: Nope, never a dull moment with this crowd. I've only been to the desert once, well, it was Las Vegas, but driving down to Hoover Damn sure opened my eyes to the desert life. I had never seen houses with rocks in their front yards instead of grass... anyway, in a place like Egypt, where all you have is miles upon miles of sand, it does tent to get cold at night. I think everyone likes to kidnap Yugi (in my stories at least). I wonder why... must be some fetish of mine .  
  
**Tainted Fortune**: Intriguing? Thanks! I definitely aim to entertain and I am very glad that you like the way the story is being written. I love twists and turns in the stories I read and try to provide the same to my readers. It keeps me interested in the story too.  
  
**Aura Black Chan**: You're welcome! I always thought it made more sense for Mokuba to be aware, to some degree, of what his brother was going through. I mean, it doesn't make sense for him to be totally oblivious. Mokuba is really protective and understanding of Seto, even when he gets into his moods, so I figured that he knew why Seto was the way he was. The priests, more than the pharaoh, are going to have a lot of things to answer for. Yugi isn't going to let things drop at all, and I think that even Yami will get something out of it.  
  
**Saiyan Jedi**: LOL! Don't worry, I hate 'It's a Wonderful Life' so I'll stay away from it. I read the first chapter of the story, but didn't get a chance to read the rest of it. It seems pretty interesting, if a bit short. Then again, I like to get lost in the stories I read...   
  
**Shadowwaker**: Ohhh, fanart... wow, you'd be willing to do that? That's pretty cool! I'd love to see what you come up with. Thanks!  
  
**Kaoaniz**: Thanks for the review! I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
  
**Leland Lancaster**: Suspense is a good thing, right? :o)  
  
**TZ**: Torture is the way I show my love for the wonderful characters that Takahashi-san created... and I know that you all love it too. I felt so bad for Mana when Mahaado died and turned into the Dark Magician... The Yami vs. Bakura fight has been great so far. I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but I plan on watching it tonight, so I'll find out then how it turned out.  
  
**Mutou Yasu**: Yup, I know what you mean. I'm glad you're still enjoying the story. Bakura is only fun when he is bad... :o) Thanks!  
  
**Black blade**: I definitely don't want you to fall of the chair, so here is the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it, and thank you for the kind words!  
  
**MotherChowGoddess**: You're very sweet to say that I'm an inspiration... thanks, it made my day! If you want to know what happens after Battle City in both the manga and anime, let me know. I'll be happy to fill you in. Honda doing the chicken dance, huh? That does sound interesting... Uh, oh... it already sounds bad for Yami Bakura. What are you going to do to the poor guy? I bet it's nice to share your fanfiction with your daughter. It makes it a lot more fun to write, doesn't it? Is Bakura your favorite character? Just curious...  
  
**S.K**.: Believe me, Kaiba is a hard character to write, so having the reassurance that I'm doing it right never gets old. Thanks! I think it actually was true that Seto and Gozaburo fought over his holographic system. I don't remember what episode it was specifically, but I can picture it in my mind. While in the virtual world with Mokuba, Seto recalls that Gozaburo wanted him to hand it over for him to sell to the military, since that's what Kaiba Corp. did before Seto got a hold of it. I can't say for sure if the uprising happened after that, because it's never explicitly stated, but Kaiba did gather the big 5 as allies shortly after, so I just assumed that it happened because of their disagreement.  
  
As far as the doubles go: There are two Setos and two Yamis in Egypt. There's only one Bakura in Egypt. Ryou and Bakura are in preset day Japan, so I don't really count them as duplicates. Hope that helps.  
  
**Red Phoenix Star**: Mokuba is a great kid! I've always been fond of the character and I was happy to get to use him in this story. You're right, Seto is too stubborn for his own good. That stubbornness is going to get him in trouble a little later on in the story. Thanks for replying!  
  
**Tsuki**: Maybe all those faces finally got to you and made you bit hyper, huh? Just kidding. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**U.K.R.C**: I've run into enough stories that just get left unfinished to make me not want to do that to my readers. This story still has plenty of chapters to go, so I hope that you'll continue to enjoy it. You're not a bother, and I agree completely with what you said. Telling someone to do something that's against their nature is useless, because it won't make much of a difference. I sympathize, because I'm the same way Kaiba is too, I guess that's why I like the character so much. In this particular situation, the way he is won't help him, though. Thank you for replying!  
  
**Hobbitfeet13**: You definitely have to squint for the humor, I completely agree. My stuff just seems to lean towards the angst category no matter how hard I try. Mokuba has always had Seto to shield him from the worst of life, so I doubt that he'd ever be like his brother. He might be a bit jaded and bitter, but I doubt never to the extent that Seto is. Seto would never let that happen. Mr. Moto seems to be full of surprises too. I like to use him a lot, so I tend to make him different every time. Sorry, but I can't kill Gozaburo off just yet. I still need him in the story. But stay tuned, who knows what might happen later. Thanks for replying!  
  
**PyroDragon**: Thanks! I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**Karasea**: Present Bakura is going to help in a way, but it won't be because of Yami, it'll be more because of himself. It'd be out of character for Bakura to do anything for Yami. I'm not yet sure about past Bakura... I'll see where the story takes him.  
  
**MsHobgoblin**: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**Pocky**: Wow... I don't think I've had quite that reaction to a story before. Cool! Thanks for the plushie, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter.  
  
**Bayleef**: Wow... thank you so much for the compliment. I'm glad that my story has made one of your favorites! I've never heard of 'Smile', but now I'm curious. Who writes it? Thank you also for taking the time to reply. It made my day!  
**  
Restlesspirit**: For the sake of you sanity, here is the next chapter! I woldn't want to have someone else to have to visit at the funny farm .  
  
**Ieyre:** You're the only one who mentioned how the dream was related... I'm glad you caught that. Poor Seto... we all do love to abuse him, don't we? Thanks!  
  
**Nenya85**: You have very good insight into the story, especially Kaiba's character. He's such a secluded, do it myself, kind of guy that is used to dealing with things on his own, so he wouldn't want to have anyone else k now. In the case of Yami, I think the rivalry has a lot to do with it. Kaiba wouldn't want Yami to see him as weak (though Yami wouldn't). Kaiba is also used to making deals to get what he wants. No one has ever given him things unconditionally, hence why he deals with Yugi the same way. Wow... I've said a lot. Sorry about that. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
**  
Dream Guardian**: Thanks for the snacks! They help this poor, harried, and sleep deprived authoress. Nope, I'm afraid that as long as my fingers are typing this story, the guys aren't going to catch much of a break. It's just so much fun to torture them... and then try to put them back together. I'm glad you're enjoying the story!  
  
**Katie**: Thank you very much for the review! I give you applause for reading this story in one sitting. I think it's over two hundred pages by now, so it was a lot of reading. I'm glad that you agree with the way I've dealt with the rape. Like I said in a previous author's note, that's a touchy subject for me and I want to do it justice.  
  
AU means Alternate Universe. It's where you take the characters from any series and put them in a setting that has nothing to do with the original series (like stories in which the YGO characters are vampires or stories where one or more of the characters don't exist or exist as drastically different characters). Stories that also qualify as AU are ones in which the events in the anime or manga are not followed (like having Yugi get the puzzle later, or where he doesn't have it at all, or where Yami exists in a body of his own). I hope this explanation helped. If not, feel free to ask more questions.  
  
Kaiba has already met Mokuba's Egyptian counterpart. He was the little boy, Yuya, that found Yami. Yami took him and the girl, Rebecca's counterpart, to the palace with him. The pharaoh and Yami were returning the kids to their home when Kaiba, and Yugi were kidnapped.  
**  
Kittencrazy**: I thank your friend for telling you about the story, and I'm glad you enjoyed it so far!  
  
**Moonlitspire**: Yup, it's definitely better late than never. Thanks for the review. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story, especially the interaction between Kaiba and Yugi. I really like those two characters and wanted to do something with them, even if that something involves a horrific incident like rape. I've found it very amusing to keep Yami, the pharaoh, and the priest from tearing out each other's throats. The three have very strong personalities, and they tend to clash a lot. Thanks again for reviewing, and I hope you like this new chapter.  
  
Thanks again for all the reviews! Now on to the story:

* * *

**Part 19: Separated**  
  
"This is no use. We need something else to get these handcuffs off."  
  
Solomon glanced at Joey, who was trying to pull the cuffs off the posts they were attached to, and failing miserably. They'd tried breaking the wooden posts with anything sturdy they'd found in the room, but the wood was too strong and they'd managed only to deface the headboard.  
  
All he could think of at that moment was his grandson and the spirit that dwelled in the Millennium Puzzle. Salomon had become fond of the spirit and considered him a part of the family. He wouldn't be alive to take care of his grandson if the pharaoh's spirit hadn't saved his life in that tomb many years ago, and for that alone, Solomon regarded the spirit with affection and respect.  
  
He hated seeing Yugi like he was now, unresponsive and at someone else's mercy. Salomon had always loved the boy, ever since he'd laid eyes on him the first day of his life, and it hurt him that he couldn't do anything to repair what had been done, or that he hadn't been able to do anything to prevent any of this from happening. He realized that Yugi was no longer a child and could take care of himself, but at times like this, Solomon wanted to wrap Yugi in his arms and never let him out of sight.  
  
"Maybe an axe or a sharp knife can saw through those boards," Ryou commented.  
  
Mokuba and Joey pondered the idea, while Tea shook her head.  
  
"Are you out of your mind? If you bring an axe in here, what are the chances that you'll miss the post and chop off one of Yugi's hands instead?" Tea asked.  
  
Ryou shrugged. "We don't have many other options and we can't leave him behind."  
  
"He's right," Mokuba added. "It's getting late, and Gozaburo is going to be home soon. We don't want to be here when he is."  
  
They all went back to their pondering. Solomon smiled, as always impressed with the maturity these kids possessed. They always seemed to be getting into tight spots, but they also always managed to resolve them. He hoped that this time would be no different.  
  
Solomon got up from where he'd been sitting on the bed and examined the bed posts carefully. They were thick, so the handcuffs didn't have much play. A short chain fell from the posts and down to Yugi's wrists, leaving most of Yugi's hand in the way of the chain, so they couldn't simply cut it. If they were going to cut anything, it was going to have to be the posts.  
  
"Mokuba," Solomon said as he came to a decision. "If there is an axe or something similarly sharp somewhere in the property, bring it. I'll take responsibility for whatever happens."  
  
"Are you sure, Mr. Moto?" the young boy asked.  
  
Solomon smiled. "Like Ryou said, we don't have any other choice."  
  
Mokuba left the room to get the axe he said they had among their garden supplies, taking Joey and Ryou with him just in case. Tea stayed behind, and Solomon could tell that she was really worried. She'd always been a good friend to Yugi, ever since Yugi had moved into the game shop with him, and Solomon had always appreciated the girl's devotion to his grandson. Now that they were older, he could tell that her feelings had shifted a bit towards Yugi. Solomon had to admit that he wasn't entirely sure whether Tea's feelings were for his grandson or for the spirit of the puzzle, but in either case, Tea cared about the both of them and was still a good, caring friend because of it.  
  
"What do you think they're going through?" Tea asked as she brushed Yugi's hair from his forehead.  
  
"I don't know, Tea. I wish I did, though... I wish there was some way I could help my grandson."  
  
Tea nodded. "I know what you mean. I just feel so helpless," she said, and wiped at her cheeks. "I don't want them to be hurt, not even Kaiba."  
  
Solomon had to chuckle at that. "You're worried about Kaiba too?" he asked, hoping to lighten the mood a little and keep the young woman from worrying too much.  
  
Tea smiled. "Yugi, Yami, and Kaiba are a package deal right now, and I'd like them all back very much."  
  
"Me too, Tea, me too," Solomon agreed. "I want them back before anything happens to them."

* * *

Someone had their hand at the back of his neck and something was being pushed against his lips. He felt hot liquid splash onto his lips, and with it came a very sour smell. As full consciousness returned, Yugi turned his head away from the pressure to his lips only to have the hand behind his neck jerk his head back in place.  
  
"Drink this, you idiot," a very gruff and very familiar voice growled in his ear. "If you spill it, I'm not going to waste another batch of this herb to make you another brew."  
  
Groaning, Yugi opened his eyes to find thief Bakura's face inches away from his own. What Yugi noticed first was the scars that ran along Bakura's left cheek and he wondered where the thief had gotten those. With the kind of life the thief led, it shouldn't surprise Yugi that he'd acquired scars along the way. He was so used to Bakura using Ryou's body, however, that seeing the face scarred caught him off guard. He tried to push Bakura away from him, but in his state, he didn't have much strength. They were in the shade of a tall sand dune and for a moment, Yugi couldn't remember what was going on.  
  
"What's that for?" he asked, his voice coming out as a rough croak.  
  
"It's for the fever, boy. Drink it. I was getting tired of hearing your delirious babbling, so I decided to do something about it. The little I got down your throat seems to have helped."  
  
'So that's why my throat feels so sore,' thought Yugi, wincing.  
  
He grabbed onto Bakura's red cloak and pulled himself to a sitting position in the hot sand, wincing as Bakura cursed when Yugi's sudden movement almost made his lose his balance.  
  
"I mean it, boy. I'd rather not have to hurt you for making me waste this," Bakura sneered. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to come by healing herbs? I had to go into the palace to steal this."  
  
Yugi glared at Bakura, making his displeasure at the verbal mistreatment clearly known.  
  
"Then why are you wasting it on me?" Yugi asked, his tone laced with anger and bitterness.  
  
Bakura smirked. "I already told you, boy, I wanted to shut you up. Besides, if I want the pharaoh to pay handsomely for you, I'll have to keep you healthy and whole."  
  
Yugi's eyes widened at the statement. Didn't Bakura think he was the pharaoh? Wasn't that why the thief had taken him in the first place? Speaking of the pharaoh, where was Kaiba? As if reading Yugi's mind, Bakura smiled.  
  
"I know you're not the pharaoh, boy. I thought you were at first, especially after I sensed the magic you used. I can't explain it, but you're not the pharaoh. You look like him, use the same magic as him and even carry that puzzle, but you're not him."  
  
Yugi was puzzled. How could Bakura have sensed the puzzle's magic. Is that how he found them at that camp? He had a multitude of questions, but he didn't ask any of them. He didn't want to give Bakura more power over him.  
  
"Where is...the priest?" Yugi asked, catching himself and not saying 'Kaiba' instead.  
  
Bakura chuckled. "I left him in the dust," he said, his eyes shinning with merriment. "You should have seen the look on his face, it was pitiful! The man couldn't even get around properly. He kept hobbling and staggering. I wish I could have stuck around to take advantage of the priests' condition, but at the time, I thought I had the pharaoh on my hands."  
  
Yugi lowered his head to hide his fear and anguish from the thief. Kaiba was still badly hurt and in no condition to go chasing after anyone. He'd said that Yugi's healing spell had worked, and Yugi had seen an improvement in Kaiba, but it wasn't enough. Physically, Kaiba still looked like crap and Yugi could only hope that he'd managed to heal some of the internal injuries. He didn't know why the healing spell had the effect on him that it had, or why it had left him so drained, weak, and feverish. Maybe it was because Yami hadn't been with him. Yugi was worried about Kaiba having been left alone, because Kaiba did not need to be alone. He needed to be looked after and taken care of, even if Kaiba refused to submit to it. His condition was serious, and Yugi was worried about the toll it would have on him the first full day after he was attacked.  
  
"How sweet, you're worried about your priest," Bakura said, intruding into Yugi's thoughts. "He did seem pretty out of it. What happened to you two anyway? What happened to the bandits in that camp you were in?"  
  
Yugi looked at the thief and attempted to pull off Kaiba's best 'buzz off' look. He succeeded somewhat, since Bakura shrugged and held the clay bowl out to him again. Yugi took it, figuring that if the thief had wanted to kill him, he would have already done so. He took a small sip of the greenish liquid and winced at the bitter taste.  
  
"Where are you taking me?" Yugi asked.  
  
Bakura shrugged. "That's for me to know."  
  
Yugi finished drinking the horrible brew, and then handed Bakura back the bowl. The thief put the bowl back in a pocked of his cloak, and then hauled himself, and Yugi, to their feet.  
  
"Break is over. It's time to resume our journey."

* * *

'Just a little longer.'  
  
Kaiba wasn't sure why he kept repeating that over and over, since he had no idea where he was going. Having a goal in mind, however, was better than wandering aimlessly in the desert with only his thoughts for company. He'd already done that, and hadn't liked where his mind had taken him. Kaiba had found that keeping himself busy, staying on the move while his mind worked on finding Bakura and Yugi, kept him from thinking about his current condition and what had led to it. The pain the ride was causing him was a constant reminder, and occupying his mind served to let him shove the pain and the reason for it to a corner of his mind.  
  
When he hadn't been able to chase after Bakura on foot, he'd gotten on the nearest horse to try and catch him that way. Simply sitting on the horse sent waves of pain up and down his body, but Kaiba had been determined to chase Bakura down and get Yugi back. He'd managed to follow the thief and Yugi for a short distance, but hadn't been physically able to keep the horse at full speed for more than a few minutes at a time, which had caused him to lose a lot of ground. A sudden sandstorm had gotten in their way, and when it was over, Bakura and Yugi were gone. Now, Kaiba was alone in the middle of the desert, still on the horse, wandering around in no particular direction. He'd even gotten desperate enough to try and 'open his mind' as Yugi had put it when they'd all been trapped in the puzzle, to see if he could sense Yugi, but had come up empty. He would even have welcomed finding Yami, but hadn't been fortunate in that area either.  
  
He didn't know much about Bakura's reincarnation, or the spirit of the Millennium Ring. He had seen them duel on occasion and had heard rumors that the spirit was ruthless and vicious, and meeting the thief Bakura had made that fact abundantly clear. He was not aware of the relationship the thief and the pharaoh had, but judging from the relationship Yami and the spirit of the Millennium Ring had, it couldn't be a very good one. Kaiba only hoped that the thief realized soon enough that Yugi wasn't the pharaoh, before he was inclined to punish Yugi for a crime he hadn't committed, just as Hori had...  
  
Kaiba cleared his head of that thought immediately. He was not going to go down that road again. Hori was a thing of the past. The man was dead and buried, and no longer had any control over him. He would stay in the darkness of Kaiba's mind for the rest of his life.  
  
The horse he was on suddenly shuddered, and Kaiba wondered what had spooked it. He looked around for the cause but saw nothing but sand around him. He knew enough to realize that the horse he was riding was now unstable and could bolt at any moment if spooked again. He should get off the horse and take a small break, before the horse did bolt. Kaiba ran his good hand down the horse's mane and whispered soothingly to it, hoping to calm it down. It worked a bit, since the horse seemed to settle down.  
  
Kaiba looked around for a place to stop for a moment, but found no shelter from the sun. He couldn't say in one place in the middle of the day, so moving would be his best option. However, in the condition he was in, riding for a prolonged period of time would be as damaging as the exposure to the sun. Seeing no alternative, Kaiba decided to get down from the horse and walk it for a bit, maybe try and sooth it some more.  
  
"There, there, it's okay," Kaiba said to the horse and he took a stronger hold of the ancient saddle in order to dismount.  
  
He'd managed to swing his right leg around the horse and was preparing to jump the short distance to the ground when the horse suddenly whined and got up on its hind legs, in the process throwing Kaiba off. Kaiba landed on his butt, which sent a wave of agonizing pain up his spine. His vision blurred and he slumped to the sand, unconscious.

* * *

"Seto."  
  
High Priest Seto turned at the voice and found Priest Akunadin standing behind him, regarding him with an expression of anger and slight fear.  
  
"Yes, Akunadin?"  
  
They had stopped to rest the horses for a bit, despite Yami's protests that they needed to get to Yugi immediately. Akunadin had been riding one of the other carriages, so the man had not spoken to Seto since they'd left the castle. In fact, the two had not shared a conversation since Akunadin had given Yugi to him, which made Seto slightly nervous. The anger in the priest's eyes Seto could understand, but he couldn't understand why the priest would be afraid.  
  
"How are you feeling?"  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow at the question, since it was the last thing he expected to be asked.  
  
"I'm fine. I'm a bit tired, but otherwise well."  
  
Akunadin nodded and took a couple of steps closer to Seto.  
  
"I am glad. When I heard that you had been poisoned, I was afraid that you would not recover."  
  
Seto looked down at the elder priest, wondering what had gotten into him. Akunadin never became emotional or showed affection towards anyone, least of all Seto, and it made him wonder if something was wrong with the elder man.  
  
"Are you well, Akunadin?" Seto asked.  
  
Akunadin chuckled. "Yes, I am well Seto. I was simply concerned about your well being."  
  
Seto nodded in acceptance of the explanation, and turned away. He was about to return to his carriage when a hand on his arm stopped him.  
  
"Seto, you must not take Pharaoh Yami to that village," Akunadin whispered, while tightening his hold on Seto's arm.  
  
Seto turned back around, his eyes on the man's face. Akunadin's face was clear of all emotion, but his eye showed something different. Akunadin was definitely afraid.  
  
"Why? What are you afraid we'll find there?"  
  
Akunadin did not release Seto's arm, and Seto had to move away until Akunadin's hand dropped away.  
  
"I'm not afraid of anything, Seto. That village is simply too dangerous for the pharaoh, and he must not go."  
  
"Two innocent men are missing, and will probably be found in that village. I can't ignore that and advice the pharaoh to simply leave them at the mercy of that thief," Seto said.  
  
He neglected to add that he felt somewhat responsible for their disappearance, since the bandits that kidnapped them had more than likely been after him, not the pharaoh.  
  
"They are strangers," Akunadin said. "They do not even belong in our time. Their loss, while tragic, would simply be a casualty of war. We would not suffer."  
  
Seto clenched his hands into fists and took a step away from the elder man, his face reflecting the disbelief he felt.  
  
"I can't believe you're willing to abandon them. If the village is dangerous, then we will all do our best to protect the pharaoh," Seto said, gesturing to the entire caravan, especially the other priest, Mahaado, who had come with them. "I won't let anything happen to the pharaoh, but I am not willing to abandon those two men to the mercy of the desert and that thief," Seto said, and walked back to his carriage.  
  
"Is everything well, Seto?"  
  
Seto glanced up and bowed his head. "Yes, Pharaoh, everything is well. We should get going."  
  
"Yes, we should."  
  
Pharaoh Yami gave the word and the caravan began moving once again. Seto was glad they weren't going to the bandit camp anymore, because he hadn't wanted to meet up with Hori on his own turf. If he had to meet the bandit again, Seto wanted it to be on neutral ground, where neither would have the advantage. He only hoped that thief Bakura had managed to do away with him before Hori had the chance to do anything to his double. Kaiba did not deserve to receive Hori's rage, especially since he had no idea about the bad blood between the two, and what had caused it. He hoped they wouldn't be too late.  
  
"Look, there's something over there!"  
  
Seto stood up and walked to where the driver sat. He looked in the direction the man was pointing and saw that something was on the ground directly in front of them.  
  
"Stop!" he said, and jumped off the carriage.  
  
As Seto got closer to the lump, he saw that it was a human body. In the heat of the afternoon sun, he wouldn't be surprised to find that whoever it was had already died. Though what anyone would be doing out here in the middle of the day was beyond him. Once he was a few feet away, he realized that the man on the ground was familiar, especially since he wasn't wearing Egyptian robes, but a strange outfit. With a sinking feeling, Seto realized that he was looking at the body of his double.  
  
Kaiba was on his side, his back to Seto. Seto kneeled next to the man and gently turned him over. He gasped at the sight that greeted him. Kaiba's face was red, bruised, and swollen. His clothes were tattered and dirty, but he was still breathing. There was a cut on Kaiba's neck that still bled slightly. Kaiba was completely covered except for his face, and Seto wondered what other injuries were hidden under the clothes.  
  
"Kaiba!"  
  
Seto turned his head to see that Pharaoh Yami, his double, a couple of guards, and Priest Akunadin had come to see what he'd found.  
  
Yami kneeled down on Kaiba's other side and pushed some of the hair off his forehead. He pressed his fingers to Kaiba's throat and smiled in relief.  
  
"He's still breathing."  
  
"We need to get him out of the sun," Pharaoh Yami said.  
  
Seto didn't have to be told twice. He scooped his double up in his arms and made his way back to the carriage. Once inside, Yami lay some of the pillows and silk coverings on the floor so he could lay Kaiba down. A bag was pressed into his hand, and Seto nodded. Yami gently sat by Kaiba's head and lifted it, so Seto could press the water bag against Kaiba's lips. He was gentle, since Kaiba's lips were split and swollen and he didn't want to injure his double any further. Seto had to force his double's jaw open, but finally managed to get some cool water into Kaiba's mouth.  
  
Suddenly, Kaiba's eyes snapped open and he pushed Seto away, causing him to land heavily on his back.  
  
"Kaiba, it's okay, you're among friends now," Yami said, still holding onto Kaiba's head. "You need to drink some water; you've been out in the sun too long."  
  
Kaiba licked his lips and tilted his head backwards so he could see Yami.  
  
"Where is Yugi?" Kaiba asked, his voice raspy. "Did you find him?"  
  
"No, but Priest Seto thinks he knows where Bakura is taking him. We're on our way there now."  
  
Kaiba nodded. He reached out to Seto, and Seto handed him the water bag. Kaiba sipped the water gently, using only one of his hands. The other lay on his lap, swollen to twice its size and black and blue from the damage done to it.  
  
"Your hand, what happened?" Pharaoh Yami asked.  
  
Kaiba's eyes shifted down to his hand, and an almost imperceptible shudder ran through him. No one else seemed to have noticed, but Seto did.  
  
"It was nothing, just a fight that didn't go my way," Kaiba said, his voice eerily neutral.  
  
Seto narrowed his eyes. "Was it Hori?"  
  
Kaiba's head snapped up and his eyes met Seto's. Seto saw a flash of fear in those blue eyes, before they became cold and indifferent.  
  
"Yeah, that was the bastard. He got the worst of it, though," Kaiba said.  
  
"Who is Hori?" Yami asked, looking from Kaiba to Seto.  
  
Kaiba shrugged, and returned the water bag. "He's just a scumbag that smacked Yugi and me around for a bit. Like I said, he got the worst end of it."  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed further. Kaiba was lying. If not lying outright, then he was leaving a lot of it out. He'd have to talk to him later, when they were away from everyone else.  
  
"Do you want me to heal that? Are there any other injuries I need to know about and heal?" Seto asked.  
  
Kaiba shook his head. "The wrist is the worst of it. If you can heal it, do so."  
  
Seto recognized the tone of voice immediately, because it was one he used often. When feeling defensive, it was better to always attack first. Kaiba was doing that now with his harsh demeanor. Something had definitely happened; something that Kaiba didn't want anyone else to know about.  
  
"Okay, give me your wrist."  
  
Kaiba complied and held out his swollen wrist. Seto summoned his magic and directed it through the Millennium Rod. He pictured Kaiba's wrist whole, and a flash of light from the rod signified that he'd completed the task. Kaiba took his wrist back, tested it, and smiled slightly as it became apparent that it was healed.  
  
"Are you sure there aren't any other injuries I should heal?" Seto asked, his gaze never leaving Kaiba's. Kaiba, for his part, did not look away but met him face on.  
  
"No, that's it."  
  
"Are you sure you're okay, Kaiba?" Yami asked. "You don't look well at all."  
  
Kaiba sighed, exasperated. He turned to Yami. "As I said earlier, Yugi and I were slapped around a little bit, nothing serious. I've had worse."  
  
Yami sighed and nodded, but it was clear to Seto that Yami didn't entirely believe Kaiba either.  
  
"Shouldn't we be going after Yugi now?" Kaiba asked, apparently eager to direct the subject away from himself.  
  
Seto noticed how Kaiba slowly, as if to hide the movement, scooted away from Yami. Yami, for his part, didn't seem to have noticed how Kaiba had shrunk away from him. Yes, they were definitely going to have a talk.  
  
"Yes, let's resume our course to the thief's village."

* * *

"Where are we?"  
  
Bakura looked down at his charge, not for the first time wondering where the boy had come from. The similarities to the pharaoh were so uncanny that they couldn't have been simple coincidence. Something major was going on, and Bakura had a feeling that if he found out what it was and used it to his advantage, he'd be a lot better off.  
  
"This is my village, boy, or what's left of it."  
  
Yugi looked around, his expressive face showing Bakura the emotions crossing it.  
  
"What happened to it? Where are the rest of the villagers?"  
  
Bakura clenched his jaw and it took every ounce of control he possessed not to smack the boy for his stupidity. He should know what had happened to his village. Everyone connected to the pharaoh should know.  
  
"Pharaoh Yami happened. That trinket you wear around your neck, the Millennium Puzzle, was forged at the cost of the lives of the people of my village. You wear it proudly, but you should know that my people died to make it."  
  
Yugi's head turned and his violet eyes met Bakura's lavender ones. Yugi's eyes were wide, and Bakura was happy to see a hint of disbelief in them.  
  
"Yami would never do that, Bakura. He wouldn't slaughter people like that."  
  
Bakura shrugged. "His kingdom was being threatened and he was powerless to stop the invasion. He resorted to magic, and the Millennium Items were the result. Yes, they're powerful, but they were forged by the blood of good, honest people. Out of my entire village, I was the only one left alive, and that was by sheer luck, and because I was only a child."  
  
Yugi shook his head in denial. "I don't believe you. You're just telling me this because you want to turn me against Yami."  
  
Bakura grabbed Yugi by the arm and pulled him further into the village.  
  
"I'll show you proof, boy. When I'm done with you, you will have no doubts as to whether I'm telling you the truth."

* * *

No evil cliffhanger this time... I hope you enjoyed the chapter. 


	20. By Myself

Greetings! I've rediscovered the joy that is writing on paper. To me, there's just something about the feel of pencil on paper that is both relaxing and exciting at the same time. Speaking of which, I have the next chapter of No Kinen Ni written on my notebook. I'll post it as soon as I get it typed and somewhat edited.  
  
Thank you all for the kind words regarding my accident. I'm doing better now, even though I still can't walk without a brace. The knee should be healed in about three more weeks (just in time for the second half of my summer vacation, yay!).  
  
One more thing: I should probably have stated a while back, when I started the Egypt arc of this story, that it contains spoilers for the manga and the later episodes of the anime. While I've taken liberties with what I've written, Takahashi-san gets all the credit for coming up with the original idea. bows All hail Takahashi-san. Also, I had trouble spelling Yugi's grandfather's name in the last chapter. A few reviewers pointed out that I fluctuated between 'Solomon' and 'Salomon' (I'll blame it on the pain medication I was taking for my knee ). The correct spelling is 'Solomon'. Sorry about the confusion and thanks to those that pointed it out to me.  
  
Reviews:  
  
**Skyla Doragono**: Poor Kaiba... he's definitely going to get grilled by his past self. I'm looking forward to that too. It should come about in the next two chapters. About Yami and Yugi: I have no intention on pitting them against each other, but I'm not against a bit of tension. Thanks for the review.  
  
**Mittens no Hikari**: Hey, there, it's great to hear from you! Yeah, the fic has taken a turn towards the dark side... it wasn't planned, it just sort of happened. I'm very happy that you're still willing to give it a try, though. I hope that you continue to enjoy it.  
**  
Saiyan Jedi**: A good shadow game, huh? I was never much into those, mainly because it seemed so un-Yami like, so I can't be of much help. Good luck finding one, though!  
  
**Alycol14**: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Give it a few more chapters and you'll start to see how it's going to come together.  
  
**Mimiheart**: :o) I've gotten plenty of teasing from my friends and family over the accident... the knee is getting better, but I still can't walk on it without the brace. I don't think Kaiba is ever going to be able to admit that he's not okay... that's just not the kind of person he is. But there will come a time, where he will have to seek out help or... well, I can't spoil that, can I?  
  
**Katie**: You're very welcome. Are you sure I didn't have Kaiba interacting with Yuya? I could have sworn I'd written it... or maybe I just thought about it. With my state of mind during that part of the story, I probably forgot to write it. I may have to add something in one of the coming up chapters to make up for it. Thanks for bringing it up!  
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Metalsilverarmor23**: Hi there! Thank you for the review! I'm glad that you're enjoying the Seto/Kaiba interaction.  
**  
Moonlitsprite**: You're right, Kaiba is not going to be very willing to accept help outright, mainly because no one has really offered it to him without wanting something in return. Besides what happened to him is very personal and it's going to be very hard for him to talk about it.  
  
Thanks for the good wishes. My knee is doing much better and the swelling of my ankle went down the next day. Speaking of jamming your toes into corners... I've done that too. I've broken both little toes like that. No, they're definitely not fun!  
**  
Masako man**: I'm glad to know that you're enjoying the story. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
**Yami126**: Thank you very much for your kind words. I'm happy to know that you're enjoying the story and I hope that you continue to do so.  
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Black blade**: Bakura is going to show Yugi his village, mostly, and tell him a whole bunch of stuff. Read the chapter to get more details.  
  
**Aura Black Chan**: My opinion of Bakura has changed since I've seen the Egyptian episodes... there's one where they show the priests and palace guards rounding up the people of Bakura's village, while the child Bakura watches, that made me feel really sorry for him. He deserved to get his side of it out, even if he wasn't entirely truthful with Yugi.  
**  
S.K**.: Thank you for the good wishes and I hope that you did well on your SAT's. I remember taking those... the test was definitely very exhausting. Don't worry about it too much, though. Once you get into college, the SAT scores won't mean much. Good luck, though!  
**  
Yuki**: Thank you very much!  
**  
Nenya85**: I'm very happy that you like my characterization of Bakura. This is the first time I've written him in any sort of important role, and I am nervous about it. Well, I'm nervous about everything I write, but this one in particular. The bond, even as uncertain as it is, between Kaiba and Seto has a lot of possibilities, and will be the cause for some very important twists later on.  
**  
Kaoaniz**: I'm very happy that you liked the chapter, and I hope that this one wasn't too long in coming. Thanks!  
**  
Vappa**: Scrambled plots, huh? I've done that a few times, but I have a knack for pulling something out of the air and fixing whatever I've managed to break. Let's hope I don't have to do that to this story too much.  
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Dream Guardian**: Thanks! I wanted to make Bakura somewhat decent, while still keeping up his bad ass persona. You might have a different opinion of it when you read this chapter, though, since things do get a bit heated between Bakura and Yugi. Thanks for the kind words (and the snacks) I'm doing much better now.  
**  
Hobbit13**: You're absolutely right about Mr. Moto's name... I can't believe I misspelled that (kind of like the Jomei/Jamei thing in NKN). Thank goodness I'm not writing the names in Japanese. Jounouchi alone would do me in. I'm glad you like Solomon. I've always thought he was a great character, but never really used properly. Or maybe I just want an adult in this whole situation. It's easy to forget sometimes that Yugi and friends are all just high school kids. Bakura and Yugi are rather fun... and volatile, as you'll find out in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing!  
**  
PyroDragon2006**: I can't take credit for the creation of the items, since it was really Takahasi-san (the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh!) who came up with it. It was in the manga first and just recently in the anime. I used the idea (modified it a bit for my purposes) but the credit goes to him.  
**  
MotherChowGoddess**: No data in the document? Do you use Firebird to browse the web? I used to get that error a lot too and it was weird. It just suddenly went away, though. I don't think you can ever get too old or too experience to loose the nervousness of a sex scene. It's totally normal, and I'll bet you'll end up with a better scene because of it.  
  
Lizeth is awesome, isn't she? Such talent... wow, I was in awe when I first saw the art she did for the stdory. It was very flattering too. I saved the picture and had it on my desktop for a while after she posted it.  
**  
Restlesspirit**: 200 thumbs up, huh? YAY!  
  
**Tsuki**: Aww, that's very sweet, but I'm glad I could add a little more happiness to your summer.  
  
**Bayleef:** I can just picture you jumping up and down. I'm glad you like this story that much! Yeah, Kaiba has got some issues to resolve, but hopefully he'll be able to. Thanks for the review!  
**  
Silver/Golden Dragon**: Thanks for the review!  
**  
Karasea**: You're on the right track... believe me, Yami is going to get his say in this chapter.  
  
**Tuulikki:** I know, I know, but I adore Kaiba... I can't help but be mean to him. Thanks for the review.  
**  
The Nameless Name** (cool nickname, by the way): Wow... thank you very much! Your review made my day. Believe me, an author never gets tired of hearing that he/she is doing a good job with the writing, and I thank you for your kind words. I totally understand wanting something good to happen, but hoping for something bad. You might be happy with the way this chapter goes. Thanks again!  
  
**Hopefire**: Don't worry, no apologies are necessary. I totally understand about having to wait for summer vacation. I'm glad to hear from you again, though! Rape isn't a favorite of a lot of people, myself included, but I wanted to write a story where it was treated in a way which seems correct and realistic to me, hence why I included it. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story regardless. Thanks for the reviews!  
  
**MeantToLive**: Mental reviews, huh? I used to do that, when I first started on the whole fanfiction thing. It's always better to actually talk to the authors though, I think. Yeah, Kaiba, Yami, and Yugi will make it back to their own time. Remember that they still have the Gozaburo issue to deal with. It's just taken them a bit longer to get there.  
  
No Kinen Ni should be updated in a couple of days. I have the next chapter written on paper, but I have to type it. Thank you for your kind words, and I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.  
  
**Black Rose**: Thank you very much for reviewing! I hope that you enjoy this chapter as well.  
  
**Ieyre**: It was Yami's father who forged the Millennium Items... but Yugi doesn't know that. Besides, when has Bakura passed up a chance to hurt those he thinks of as enemies? At this point, neither the pharaoh nor the priest know it either, just Akunadin. That's why the priest didn't want them to go to the village. I'm taking the roundabout way of getting to the truth in the story.  
  
**TZ**: No apologies necessary. I hope that your move went well! I haven't had a chance to watch episodes 207 through 209. I've been very busy with school, so I've put off watching. I do have them. I had to download new codecs to get 207 and 208 to play for me, but I only watched a little bit of them. Now that you mentioned fluff, I can't wait to see them!  
  
**Mutou Yasu**: Thanks for the review! I hope this chapter wasn't too long in coming.  
  
**Red Phoenix Star**: Rape is ironic in that the victim usually blames him/her self for what happened. It's totally wrong, but it's what happens in most cases. I don't think Kaiba is going to be thinking about his double very much for a while. The making of the items was very bloody and brutal. It saved Egypt from invasion, but it created Bakura. Makes you wonder which would have been the lesser of the two evils.  
**  
Master Elora Dannan**: Thanks for putting the story on your favorites! I hope that you had a good trip.  
**  
Innominate**: Good point... I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. I think that at some point, both Yami and Kaiba are going to have to confess. Who they'll tell or how they'll come about it is a mystery still, but it'll eventually have to come to light. But yes, Yugi is very conflicted. Living with the fact that he's taken not only one life, but ten of them, is not going to be easy for him. Thank you for reviewing!  
  
Okay, now on to the chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

**  
Part 19: By Myself**  
  
Yugi Moto sat on a rock in the middle of the deserted village and watched as the sun set. He and Bakura had arrived at the village in the afternoon, while it had been bright enough for him to see the condition the village was in. Bakura had relished in showing Yugi around his 'home', all the while telling him how Yami was to blame for everything Yugi was seeing. The structures that had once been houses were dilapidated and useless, looking more like mounds of dried mud than anything ever used as a living space. The few that were still standing looked like Swiss cheese and provided very little in the way of shelter. The once well traveled paths were now unusable. Large stones blocked the way on most paths, as if some demented, overgrown child had come by and deliberately cut off the villagers mode of travel. A village that had once been teeming with life, if the number of houses was any indication, was now deserted and empty, save for one thief who kept his treasures in the small enclosure he called home at the center of the village. It was late afternoon now, and the fading sunlight cast the village in shadows, giving it an air of mystery and death.  
  
Yugi rested both of his hands on the Millennium Puzzle and felt steady warmth emanate from it. The warmth had always served to comfort him before, to remind him that someone was always present to look after him if the need arose. Now, after everything that Bakura had told him, Yugi didn't know what to think anymore.  
  
_What do I do to ignore them behind me?   
Do I follow my instincts blindly?   
Do I hide my pride from these bad dreams?   
And give in to sad thoughts that are maddening?   
Do I sit here and try to stand it?   
Or do I try to catch them red-handed?_  
  
'Yami wouldn't have done those things Bakura described,' Yugi thought, his hands tightening around the Millennium Puzzle, 'he wouldn't have ordered all of the people in this village murdered, even if his entire kingdom had been at stake.'  
  
Yugi had been telling himself that over and over again since Bakura told him about what had happened to his village. The thief had been very descriptive, and he'd made sure to tell Yugi that he'd been present for the whole thing, that he'd watched as the villagers had been rounded up like animals and killed. Bakura said he'd been just a child at the time and had managed to hide so the palace guards had never found him. He'd been living in the village, alone, ever since.  
  
Part of Yugi, the part that was kind, good, and caring, felt for the boy the thief had once been, because no child deserved to witness such a horrible thing. The other part of Yugi, the one that had been recently hardened by having to watch someone he knew and cared about brutally assaulted, the one that had been forced to kill for said person, told him that Bakura was a stranger and a thief, and that he could very well be lying about the whole thing. There was just something there, though, that made Yugi's mind reel in confusion. Bakura seemed genuinely hurt and horrified as he'd described the events. Yugi prided himself in being a good judge of character, and he didn't think that Bakura was lying.  
  
_Do I trust some and get fooled by phoniness   
Or do I trust nobody and live in loneliness?   
Because I can't hold on   
When I'm stretched so thin   
I make the right moves but   
I'm lost within   
I put on my daily façade but then   
I just end up getting hurt again_  
  
"Have you had plenty of time to think about what I've said?"  
  
Bakura's voice startled Yugi out of his thoughts, and he felt anger rushing through him at the feeling of fear and helplessness that accompanied the sound. How dare this thief kidnap him, bring him here, and then fill his head with things he'd rather not know about? What right did he have? What right did anyone else have to hurt him or his friends? What right did they have to involve him in things he had no knowledge of and nothing to do with?  
  
"How dare you?" Yugi yelled as the thief came to stand in front of him. "What gives you the right to bring me here against my will? What do you want from me?"  
  
Bakura laughed at Yugi's anger, and it only served to infuriate Yugi further. He clenched his fists and hopped down from the rock. He stood in front of Bakura, his head held high and his chin up. He was done being passive and meek. It was about time he stopped letting people push him around.  
  
"You're amusing, you know that, boy? I wonder if the pharaoh was as fiery and loud as you when he was your age."  
  
Bakura took Yugi's place on the rock Yugi had just vacated, and played with the gold hanging from his neck. He gave Yugi an amused glance, and then laughed again.  
  
"What are you going to do to me? Like it or not, you're at my mercy. I don't have to keep you tied up and gagged to keep you as my prisoner. Look around," Bakura said and gestured to the surrounding desert, "you have no where to go. If you leave the village, you will die in the desert."  
  
"What do you want from me?" Yugi asked again through clenched teeth. "Why did you bring me here?"  
  
He was tired. His body hurt and his mind was exhausted from having to deal with everything he had gone through since being separated from Yami and the pharaoh. He'd tried to be strong for Kaiba, but he still hadn't managed to help Kaiba in any way. Yugi wanted to drop to his knees and grieve for the men he had killed and for what had been taken from him in that act. He wanted to cry for Kaiba and for what had been taken from him. He wanted to yell at the injustice of it all and wanted to scream in frustration because no matter what he did, it was never, ever enough. The only thing he managed to do, however, was to stand in front of Bakura, mute and still.  
_  
I can't hold on   
To what I want when   
I'm stretched so thin   
It's all too much to take in   
I can't hold on   
To anything watching everything spin   
With thoughts of failure sinking in  
_  
"I wanted to hold you hostage and demand ransom for you," Bakura said, still grinning and playing with his gold. "Now, however, I don't think that's a good idea. If the pharaoh comes, he'll bring his priests, and I really don't want to deal with them. Instead, I'll make you a deal."  
  
Bakura got to his feet and stood in front of Yugi once again.  
  
"If you give me your Millennium Puzzle, I will take you back to the palace, safe and unharmed."  
  
Yugi narrowed his eyes at the sudden change in Bakura. The thief was no longer laughing. Instead, there was intensity to his eyes that made Yugi want to step away from him. He didn't do that, though. He stood his ground, using the anger to wash away the fear and apprehension he suddenly felt.  
  
"You want my puzzle?" Yugi asked, his voice soft and as cold as a glacier. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"  
  
Bakura seemed confused. "How would you know what I want?"  
  
Yugi chuckled. "You have a single track mind, Bakura. You want to gather the seven items and attain ultimate power, right? If it's not that, then it's something equally as ridiculous. You already have the ring, so now you want my puzzle, right?"  
  
Bakura was speechless for a moment, and the fact gave Yugi immense satisfaction. He didn't have much time to enjoy it, though, because Bakura's hand lashed out, caught Yugi on the side of the face, and sent him flying towards the rock he'd been sitting on. He hit it with his right arm, and pain shot up his elbow to his shoulder, blocking out everything else. He screamed, and as Bakura walked towards him, Yugi let his body slide to the floor. He cradled his now useless arm against his chest as he waited for Bakura to come closer. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, making him more alert and aware than he had been previously. The pain, while excruciating, focused his mind and fueled his anger.  
  
When Bakura was within reach, Yugi kicked him in the knee with all he had. The knee buckled and Bakura howled as his leg gave out. As Bakura fell, Yugi kicked with his other leg and managed to hit Bakura in the face. A satisfying crunch could be heard above Bakura's curses, and blood spurted from Bakura's nose.  
  
Yugi pulled himself to his feet as Bakura writhed on the floor. Blood covered the thief's face and white hair, but the thief was concentrating on his knee instead.  
  
"You little brat," Bakura said, his voice muffled by his broken nose. "You will pay for this."  
  
Yugi turned and walked away. He would take his chances in the desert, rather than stay in Bakura's haunted village. He'd probably dislocated Bakura's kneecap with the kick, so Yugi doubted that the thief would be able to follow him. He'd walked a few steps when he felt a rush of wind at his back. He turned to see a horrifying monster heading for him. The monster was half beast, half snake. Yugi blinked to make sure it wasn't just a vision, even though the rushing wind and magic tingling along his skin could have confirmed that he wasn't imagining things. He stood where he was, stunned.  
  
"I don't need to physically harm you, boy. My loyal servant will take care of it for me."  
  
The monster rushed Yugi, which broke the paralysis. Yugi ran as fast as his legs could carry him through the rocky ground, but he knew it wasn't going to be enough. Suddenly, the world shifted, and he was no longer standing on the ground. He'd been thrown into the air and was surrounded by cold darkness. He couldn't see which way was up or down, nor could he see what had tossed him up into the air. The air around him became thicker, which made it harder to breathe. He felt the thick gas enter his lungs, and begin to expand. It entered every part of his body from the inside, causing Yugi to writhe and scream in agony. His body was being torn open from the inside, and if it didn't stop soon, his body was going to explode.  
  
There was a bright flash of yellow, and the gas in his lungs left them, allowing him to breathe again. Unfortunately, he was still in mid fall, and there was nothing on the ground to cushion the impact. Yugi managed to twist his body just before he hit the ground. His right shoulder took most of the impact, as did his right hip. He heard the sickening crack of bone breaking but couldn't tell if it was his shoulder, hip, or something else. The pain he'd felt when he'd hit the rock was nothing compared to this. His whole body was on fire, the pain running up and down the length of his body in quick waves. Tears fell down Yugi's face, and he could only concentrate of drawing breath. It was hard, as if his lungs were full of water, but he managed to take in some oxygen. His vision began to blacken, but he didn't want to pass out, because he had to be awake to defend himself.  
  
Another flash of yellow caught his attention, and Yugi watched in detached fascination as Ra floated over him, shielding him from Bakura's beast, which was floating a few meters in front of Ra. Yugi looked around but saw no one else in the village except for Bakura, who had managed to get to his feet and was walking towards him. If Yami hadn't summoned Ra, who had?  
  
As if to answer his question, Ra looked down at him and a deep growl left his throat. Ra lowered himself further so that he was mere inches above Yugi, and Yugi could feel the power emanating from the god. He could also feel the power from his puzzle, which was glowing as bright as the afternoon sun had been earlier. It took a while for his pain addled mind to realize that he had been the one to summon Ra.  
  
"So that's how you want to decide this," Bakura said as he came to a halt beside his monster, "my monster and your god. That's fine with me, boy. Let's see whose spirit is stronger."

* * *

_I can't hold on   
To what I want when   
I'm stretched so thin   
It's all too much to take in   
I can't hold on   
To anything watching everything spin   
With thoughts of failure sinking in._  
  
They had been traveling for a while in silence, everyone in the carriage content to ponder their own thoughts. Kaiba couldn't tell how long it had been since he'd been found, but it had been long enough for the other occupants of the carriage to begin wondering about what had happened. The pharaoh and the priest kept shooting questioning glances at him, while Yami went through periods where he just outright stared. Kaiba had remedied this by closing his eyes and pretending to be asleep, but had given that up when his exhaustion, plus the comfortable cushions he was sitting on, had nearly lulled to sleep. The last thing he wanted was to fall asleep with anyone else around him, because he couldn't control his actions in his sleep. He didn't want his companions to overhear anything or see him acting in a way that might lead them to form conclusions they shouldn't be forming.  
  
That train of thought led to his current predicament. He had nothing to do. While he'd been with Yugi, he had been concerned with getting them back to the palace. When Bakura had shown up and taken Yugi, Kaiba had been preoccupied with getting Yugi back. Now, he had nothing to do but wait. The pharaoh was in charge of the search now, because he knew his way around the desert better than Kaiba or Yami. There was nothing Kaiba could do to help, so there was nothing to occupy his mind.  
  
He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened at the bandit's camp. He tried to put it out of his mind, think of something else, but the images kept intruding into his thoughts no matter what he did. The sounds, the sights, the feelings associated with that event loomed over him like a dark cloud, all mingling and churning together until he couldn't tell what was what. He often lost himself in the memories, until a voice, the whine of a horse, or a bump from the ground, tore him out of them. When he returned to himself, he was cold, shaking, and dazed.  
  
He didn't feel like himself anymore. The control, self-confidence, and assurance he'd acquired over the years had been ripped from him, until nothing but fear, uncertainty, and self-disgust remained. Logically, he knew why he'd been attacked, because the bandits had told him. He still couldn't stop feeling the guilt and shame that came with knowing that he, a person who took pride in being able to control any situation, had not been able to do anything to stop the attack.  
  
He shuddered slightly and wrapped his arms around his chest tightly, glad that he didn't have to deal with the broken wrist anymore. He didn't regret not telling the priest about his other injuries, even though they still bothered him. No one else needed to know about what had happened out in the desert.  
  
"What happened, Kaiba?"  
  
Yami's question startled Kaiba, but he didn't let Yami know it. His face was turned away from Yami's and he planned on keeping it that way. Maybe if he didn't react at all, Yami would think he was asleep and leave him alone. Besides, he didn't want to get into what had happened. He knew that he didn't have the strength to come up with a convincing enough lie in order to get Yami to stop asking questions and he wouldn't be able to fend off Yami's interrogation for very long. Kaiba also didn't want to have to meet Yami's eyes, because he was afraid that in that one look, Yami would find out what had happened to him.  
  
_If I turn my back I'm defenseless   
And to go blindly seems senseless   
If I hide my pride and let it all go on then they'll   
Take from me 'till everything is gone   
If I let them go I'll be outdone   
But if I try to catch them I'll be outrun   
If I'm killed by the questions like a cancer   
Then I'll be buried in the silence of the answer_  
  
"I need to know what happened, for Yugi's sake."  
  
So far, the pharaoh and the priest had left Kaiba alone, concentrating instead on maneuvering through the desert to get to Bakura's village. Kaiba had caught the priest looking at him out of the corner of his eye several times, which served only to make him jumpier than he already was. Kaiba desperately wanted to avoid the priest, because although he didn't believe any of that reincarnation crap Yugi and Yami were always talking about, he couldn't deny the fact that the priest was his exact double. The priest not only looked, but also acted, exactly the way Kaiba did. Kaiba might be able to fool Yami, and even Yugi, into believing that he was the same as always, but he doubted that he would be able to fool the priest  
  
"Are you even listening to me?"  
  
Kaiba took a deep breath. He held it a moment, before releasing it. Yami was apparently not going to leave him alone, so he might as well get the conversation over with. He gathered every ounce of self control and strength he had left, just as he'd always done when facing his adoptive father, cleared his face of all emotion, and turned to face Yami.  
  
_How do you think I've lost so much   
I'm so afraid I'm out of touch   
How do you expect I will know what to do   
When all I know Is what you tell me to_  
  
_Don't you (know)   
I can't tell you how to make it (go)   
No matter what I do, how hard I (try)   
I can't seem to convince myself (why)   
I'm stuck on the outside_  
  
"What do you want me to say, Yami?"  
  
Yami seemed surprised at the question. Whether it was because of the fact that Kaiba had spoken at all or because he had practically growled out the question, Kaiba could not tell.  
  
"I just want to know what happened," Yami said, becoming defensive in response to Kaiba's aggression. "How did Bakura end up with Yugi? Why didn't you help him?"  
  
Kaiba's anger rose at Yami's accusation, and with it, a deep resentment and hurt that Yami would ever think he'd let Yugi be taken without doing anything about it. He didn't outwardly react, instead he let his body relax and his mind switch into the mode that allowed him to deal with things without letting his emotions get in the way. Anger was the only emotion allowed, because when he was angry, he couldn't be hurt.  
  
"I'm not Yugi's keeper," Kaiba replied coldly, "I thought that was your job, Yami."  
  
Yami's eyes narrowed in anger. His right fist lashed out, but Kaiba caught it before it could strike his face. The residual force coursed down Kaiba's arm to the rest of his body, making the pain that had gone numb during the time he'd been resting flare up again. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from crying out.  
  
"I see that I hit a sore spot with you, Yami," Kaiba continued, while he still held onto Yami's hand. "You should have thought of Yugi's safety before letting yourself get too engrossed in your previous life. You were careless, and Yugi paid the price."  
  
Yami's face contorted with anger, and he pulled his hand out of Kaiba's grasp. Inwardly, Kaiba smiled. Now that he'd gotten Yami angry, he was very likely to leave Kaiba alone and not ask any more questions. Yami stood up and glared down at Kaiba.  
  
"I can't believe you would let your hatred put Yugi in danger," Yami said, his voice soft, but laced with disgust and anger. "You could have stopped Bakura from taking him, Kaiba, but you didn't. Did you just stand by and watch? Did you hand Yugi over to Bakura yourself?"  
  
Kaiba said nothing. After all, he'd brought this upon himself. Besides, he couldn't defend himself without telling Yami the reason he hadn't been able to help Yugi.  
  
"You disgust me, Kaiba," Yami said. "If there is anyone here that deserves to be left alone, it's you."  
  
With that, Yami moved to sit beside the pharaoh, who had been listening to the entire conversation. Kaiba turned away from them, and was disgusted to find that tears had pooled in his eyes. He closed his eyes before they could fall.  
  
'You can hate me all you want, Yami, but it won't be more than I already hate myself.'  
  
_I can't hold on   
To what I want when   
I'm stretched so thin   
It's all too much to take in I can't hold on   
To anything watching everything spin   
With thoughts of failure sinking in  
_

* * *

Ryou stepped out of his soul room and walked into the darkness beyond. He wanted to talk to Bakura about the cryptic remarks he'd made regarding Gozaburo Kaiba and the Millennium Items, and since Bakura had not been willing to stay out of the ring long enough to explain, Ryou had decided to go inside the ring. Bakura had been very angry when he'd made his brief appearance, and Ryou always hated confronting the spirit when he was in that state. They really needed the information Bakura had, so Ryou couldn't back out now.  
  
He walked deeper into the darkness, not bothering to look for the spirit. By now, Bakura would have sensed his presence and would eventually come and talk to him. All Ryou had to do was wait. He hated waiting in his soul room, because the silence and emptiness of it always unnerved him. Not that the rest of the ring was any different, but being out of the room always made him feel better. When he'd first come, he'd been frightened by the never ending blackness that surrounded him. Bakura had forced him into the ring, and the darkness had seemed deadly and suffocating then. Now, it was a bit better. He was no longer afraid to walk in the darkness, but it still put him in a state of alert.  
  
"You want to talk to me."  
  
It was a statement, not a question. Ryou turned to find Bakura standing a few feet away with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.  
  
"You knew I would eventually come ask you about Gozaburo Kaiba and the Millennium Items."  
  
Bakura's piercing stare bore into Ryou, but he didn't back down. It had been a long time, but he had finally learned to stand his ground and stand up to Bakura.  
  
"Yes, I knew you would come."  
  
Ryou sat cross legged on the ground and waited for Bakura to do join him. Bakura chose to sit on a stone bench that appeared in front of him. Ryou smiled, but the smile faded when Bakura began to speak.  
  
"After being out of touch with the outside word for such a prolonged period of time, I became annoyed," Bakura explained. "When Gozaburo showed up inside the ring, I thought it was you. Imagine my surprise when I saw that it wasn't."  
  
Bakura's explanation was delivered in an emotionless monotone, but even so, Ryou could tell that the encounter with Gozaburo had affected Bakura more than he let on.  
  
"When I saw him, I did the first thing I thought of, which was to try to take over the body. It didn't work," Bakura continued, his voice rising in anger. "When I was slammed back into the ring, the bastard had the nerve to laugh at me and place a sealing spell on me."  
  
Ryou digested what he'd heard, finding it hard to believe. He had no doubt that Bakura was telling him the truth, but Ryou didn't understand how Gozaburo Kaiba, a man with no ties to Ancient Egypt, the pharaoh, or the Millennium Items, could control them in such a way.  
  
"How was he able to enter the ring and seal you inside?"  
  
"I don't know," Bakura answered. "The man did say that he'd spent years inside of a computer studying Egyptian magic, but I doubt that was enough. The Millennium Items choose those who control them, not the other way around. Only a few in the world have that kind of power. Because of that, it is not possible to simply 'learn' how to wield the items."  
  
Ryou nodded, again digesting all that he could. He was very surprised, because Bakura normally didn't talk this much. The reason that he had said this much led Ryou to believe that the spirit was very concerned about this turn of events. When Bakura became concerned, it meant that they were already in trouble. Ryou was in possession of the ring, which meant that for the moment, Bakura was safe. What of Yami, Yugi, and Kaiba? Even if their souls managed to return, Yami and Kaiba would be trapped in the puzzle, which Gozaburo currently had. That was unacceptable.  
  
"What can we do?"  
  
Bakura shook his head, annoyance clearly visible on his face. "Why can't things ever be easy?" he asked, but it was clear that he wasn't expecting Ryou to answer the question. "I'm tired of wasting time on these idiotic things that have absolutely nothing to do with me."  
  
Ryou had to laugh at that. Leave it to Bakura to think of how the situation could benefit, or in this case not benefit, him.  
  
"We're already involved, Bakura. We have to see this through to the end. Yami, Yugi and Kaiba are going to need our help."  
  
Bakura chuckled. "If I had my way, those three would stay wherever they are for eternity. My world is much better now that they're not in it."  
  
Bakura stood and promptly disappeared, but not before leaving a parting comment. "If anything happens to me, I'm holding you responsible."  
  
Ryou rolled his eyes. Bakura was never going to change. He had brought up a very good point, though. The Millennium Items did choose who controls them, and that control is not something you can learn. What if Gozaburo had a double in Ancient Egypt? Bakura hadn't recognized Gozaburo, but that could only mean that Bakura had never met him. Yami hadn't recognized him either, but Yami's memory was practically nonexistent, so that didn't surprise Ryou either. He would bring up this new twist as soon as they'd gotten out of their current situation.  
  
Ryou willed himself out of the ring and found that Mr. Moto had successfully gotten Yugi's handcuffs off the posts. He'd destroyed the headboard in the process, but it was the result that counted.  
  
"We need to get out of here right now," Mokuba said from the door. "I think Gozaburo just got back."  
  
Joey picked Yugi up and walked to the door, followed by everyone else. Mokuba led them down the stairs and back the way they'd entered the house.  
  
"Are we taking the tunnels back?" Tea asked.  
  
"Yeah. It's the easiest way," Mokuba replied.  
  
The group made their way out of the Kaiba mansion quickly and, for once, unnoticed.

* * *

Gozaburo Kaiba entered his mansion, a self satisfied grin on his face. Hans Schmidt had been fascinated by the virtual reality system and they'd managed to iron out a preliminary agreement for the purchase of it. It was nothing official yet, but they were well on their way to drafting a binding contract. This deal was going to make Kaiba Corporation millions, which was a reason to celebrate.  
  
He made his way to his newly restored office and headed straight for the liquor cabinet. He poured himself a drink and basked in the afterglow of a deal well made. His eyes wandered around the office until they landed on the golden puzzle still sitting on his desk. He picked it up slowly, almost reverently, and turned it in his hands, admiring how the sunlight shone off its polished surface.  
  
"I should pay my 'guest' a visit," he said as he settled the puzzle around his neck. "That can wait," he decided after some thought , and took a seat on his desk chair. He had been successful with his attempt to enter the ring and talk to the spirit of the ring, but had not yet tried to enter the Millennium Puzzle. Now was as good a time as any, so Gozaburo put down his drink and concentrated on entering the puzzle. It came easy to him, almost as if he'd done it before. Gozaburo knew that he hadn't, but a part of him felt familiar with this process, familiar with the items.  
  
Before he realized it, Gozaburo was standing in the middle of a long hallway. The lighting was subdued, but it was enough for him to see the three doors that lined both sides of the hallways. They were made of different materials and had different markings, and they were all open. Gozaburo stepped up to the closest one to him, the one with the eye on the door, and peered inside.  
  
The room within was nothing but a maze of doors and stairs. Whoever inhabited the room had to be very secretive, if the maze was any indication. Gozaburo left that room, not wanting to yet run into the person who the room belonged to, and stepped to the one directly across the hallway. This room, unlike the previous one, was light and cheery, full of various kinds of toys. Gozaburo frowned. The room seemed very out of place with the rest of the décor. He stepped inside, hoping to find whoever inhabited the room, but was met only with silence. The room was empty, and there was no sign that it had been used recently.  
  
Annoyed but not yet defeated, Gozaburo went to the third room. He was surprised to find that it was an exact duplicate of Seto's laboratory. With a satisfied grin, Gozaburo finally made the connection between the rooms and their occupants. This was Seto's room... the one with the toys had to belong to Yugi, and the maze-like room had to belong to the spirit of the puzzle. Gozaburo walked deeper into his adoptive son's room and found it as empty as Yugi's room had been. Where were they? They couldn't have gone anywhere, right?  
  
Gozaburo plopped down on one of the chairs and thought over what he'd read about the Millennium Items. It was very unusual for the item, if it was known to contain a spirit, to ever be empty. The spirit of the ring had come out to greet him when he'd arrived there, so shouldn't the occupants of the puzzle do the same?  
  
Gozaburo shrugged. It didn't make much of a difference. He had time to wait.

* * *

**_  
Song credit: By Myself, performed by Linkin Park_**  
  
Next up: Everyone is finally reunited, but will it be too late? Gozaburo continues to explore the puzzle and lots more. Until then! 


	21. Bitter Reunions

Greetings! This chapter is a little darker than the previous ones. It's nothing bad, but a bit descriptive on the injuries inflicted on our favorite characters. I hope it doesn't upset anyone.  
  
Does anyone know the name of Bakura's beast? In the anime, it sounds like Diabundo... I've seen it spelled Diabound, but that doesn't look right. I've been avoiding using it for that reason, and I don't have time to look it up. I would appreciate the help! The scene with Gozaburo Kaiba didn't fit in with the rest of the chapter, so I've left it for the next one.  
  
Reviews:  
  
**Yami126**: You're welcome, you're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**SugarHighNeko**: Linkin Park has great angsty songs, don't they? No, Gozaburo isn't the incarnation of Akunadin. I think that's the priest you're talking about, though he has the Millennium Eye, not the rod. Gozaburo does have a past life in Egypt. You'll find out more about it in the next few chapters.  
  
**AG the Master**: I'm glad you're starting to see how the story is coming together. Yugi has seen more than he should have, which has definitely changed him. Kaiba has also gone through something that's completely changed him and it will be a while before he can get back to the way he was.  
  
**Dragon-Tsuzuku**: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
**MotherChowGoddess**: Yami does deserve to be whacked upside the head for what he said, but in his defense, he was worried about Yugi and has no clue about what happened to Kaiba. If he'd known, he wouldn't have said what he said.  
  
Yugi's control of the shadows is increased by the fact that both Yami and the pharaoh are there. Technically, they are the same person, which makes Yugi's control a stronger. Also, desperation has a lot to do with it... when you're desperate, you do things you normally wouldn't do. Seto Kaiba is a great character to like. Yugi started out to be my favorite, but I think Seto Kaiba is now up there too.  
  
**Ms. Zeal**: The theory is a good one, but not quite correct. In my demented little world, the Millennium Items react to a person's soul, not the body, which is why Kaiba and Yugi can both control them, as well as Ryou. You'll understand more about Gozaburo after you read this chapter and in the coming up ones too. Thanks!  
  
**Septimius**: I like the way you think! Yami will regret what he said to Kaiba at a future time, that much I can guarantee. Yup, they'll all reunite in this chapter. Though it may not be what you have in mind. I'm sorry to hear that you've lost interest in your stories. That happens sometimes. It happened to me with one of my other ones, but I just recently started writing it again. Some people lose interest in writing because they've lost interest in the subject matter. Is that the case with you? Best of luck and thanks for the review.  
  
**Shadowwaker**: Thanks! I'm glad you liked the chapter. Don't worry, no offence was taken. Some chapters do tend to be better than others. I'm afraid this one isn't very good, because I didn't get to spend that much time on it. Thank you for telling me about your friend, and tell her that I appreciate her interest and am glad that she's enjoying both stories. I do hope to hear from her!  
  
**Mimiheart**: Gozaburo isn't a popular character, it seems like. He makes a good villain, though, because he's just so fun to hate. He'll get what he deserves eventually.  
  
**Ieyre**: I think this chapter is going to depress you a lot more, so I think I'm going to go hide now.  
  
**TZ**: Yami was so cute when he was a baby and a little kid!! He sure cried a lot, though, which makes me wonder how he got to be the way he is now. Sadly, I don't have access to the DSL anymore so won't be able to get any more of the new episodes (sniff, sniff... no more Inuyasha either). The last one I saw was 210, where they kicked Bakura's butt. It was a nice one. I think the preview for 211 had Yami finding out that he was really playing the RPG with Bakura and not really in Egypt. I read that in the manga a while back and was a bit disappointed that it was just a game.  
  
I'm glad you liked the chapter. Yugi had finally had enough, so he went a bit aggressive with Bakura. It was a lot of fun to write, though.  
  
**Hobbit13:** Oh, yeah, Kaiba seriously needs help. You're right, he wouldn't take it and he won't take it when it's offered. That's just the kind of stubborn sob he is. Kaiba knew that he was pushing Yami's buttons about Yugi, which is why he said what he said. If Yami was angry at him, he'd leave him alone.  
  
Yugi is definitely stronger than most people credit him for, and I like to write him that way. I'm not sure why, but the Bakura/Yugi dynamic really intrigues me. I think they're great together, and had a lot of fun writing them. I hope I get to do it more often. I'm glad you liked the conversation between Ryou and Bakura as well. I don't think I'd ever written one like that before, but I did enjoy doing it.  
  
**Restlesspirit**: Thank you for the review! 150 stars, huh? Very cool! I'll put them all up in my room.  
  
**Mutou Yasu**: Yugi may be little, but I think he packs a mean punch when he wants to. After the day he'd had, he was definitely in the mood for some butt kicking. Nope, Yami and Seto are not going to be getting along any time soon. But that may not always be the case. We'll both just have to wait and see.  
  
**Black Rose:** Soda stopped having that effect on me years ago. I can drink a can of coke and it does nothing for me anymore. I've resorted to black coffee to keep me awake though my classes these days. I'm glad you liked the chapter.  
  
**Moonlitspire**: Kaiba is not going to be happy for a while to come. What was done to him causes a lot of damage, physical and emotional, and it's going to take a while for him to heal. Besides, Kaiba is going to be very stubborn about the whole thing, which will just make it worse. You're a Yami/Seto slash fan? I think they're a good couple, though I tend to lean towards Seto/Yugi myself. You're right about Bakura's humor. He doesn't mean it to be funny, but it happens to come out funny anyway. I'm glad to get it across okay. Thanks!  
  
**Saiyan Jedi**: Yup, I twisted things a bit, but not too much. Akunadin has nothing to do with the present Yugi, Yami and Kaiba. He's more involved with Priest Seto in the past. I won't spoil it for you yet, in case you haven't read the Egyptian Arc of the manga yet. You'll find out why Gozaburo can handle the items in this chapter.  
  
Writer's block stinks. It takes a lot to get out of it, but hopefully it'll come to you.  
  
**Invader Kas**: Wow... thank you so very much for taking the time to review every chapter. I really appreciate it, and I'm very glad that you enjoyed the story.  
  
**Yuki Tsukihana**: Bakura's monster comes from his spirit. It's an ugly thing that's half monster half snake and kicks major butt. It kicked Ra's butt in one of the episodes. The Egyptian Arc should be available on DVD pretty soon. They're up to 199 now (I think). I like Ra a lot better than Osiris... I just think it looks cooler, so I wanted to use him. Yami seems to like Osiris, though.  
**  
Cat Demon of Fire**: I hope the wait wasn't too long for the chapter!  
  
**Leland Lancaster**: Yami and Kaiba both have their issues, and right now, they're clashing. Thanks for reviewing.  
  
**Bayleef**: Yup, it seems like all of us writers love to torture poor Yugi. There's just something about him. Hopefully it'll all end happily eventually. Yami is kind of cool when he gets angry, especially when it's directed at Kaiba. Too bad Kaiba isn't able to fight back.  
  
**Dream Guardian**: Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked how I wrote Yugi, because it does seem realistic and fitting that his personality would be altered by what he's seen and had to do. You're right, Bakura is extremely hard to write. I generally hate villains who are bad just because, so I tend to give them reasons for doing what they do. Takahashi-sama has already established a back story for Bakura, but it's still hard to make it work. It's been fun to do, though. Don't worry, you can never write too much! Thank you for reviewing.  
**  
CutePrincess0333**: Glad to hear you're a Linkin Park fan. They do write great songs, don't they? I've used their songs in a few of my other stories, because they always fit so well. Thanks for the review!  
**  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon**: Gozaburo is going to have a grand old time snooping around. That'll be left for the next chapter, though.  
  
**Nenya85**: Yami does sense that there is something wrong with Kaiba, but in his worry for Yugi, he sort of let it slip. Kaiba wasn't making it any better either, so it was easier for Yami to react in anger, just as it was for Kaiba. You're absolutely right about Kaiba, and I don't think I could have phrased it better myself. Kaiba needs the help, he wants the help, he desperately wants someone to look through his walls and his illusions and see that he's hurting and broken. Even though he would push them away, having someone notice is enough to let him know that he is worth something to someone. Mokuba is the only one in his life who has ever done that for him, because Mokuba can definitely see past the walls and illusions. And he'll be a big part of the story later on.  
  
**PyroDragon2006**: Thanks! I'm glad you liked the chapter. Kaiba and Seto have an interesting conversation, but it didn't turn out quite the way I thought it did. It wasn't as violent as I thought . It's in this chapter, though, so you can tell me what you thought of it after you read it.  
  
**S.K Hashmi**: Congratulations on your SAT score! That's an awesome score, especially in Molecular Biology (which is not an easy subject). Are you going to be pre-med in college, or do you want to do research? I was a Biology/Chemistry major when I started college, and then switched to Computer Science when I was halfway through. I miss the science labs.  
  
Yup, Kaiba definitely needs a shrink. It's too bad he's not going to be willing to see one. I'm not sure what the recommended thing is for. The ff.net front page says that it's just in a testing stage, whatever that means. I think the favorites thing is still the way to go, until they explain exactly what the recommended thing is for. Yup, Kaiba's room is a lab. I'm picturing a computer lab, with several servers and lots of workstations where he can run several applications and code programs at the same time. We have several of those at school and every time I go to one I never want to leave. Nope, Bakura is not helping Gozaburo. If anything, he's concerned that Gozaburo was able to get into the ring. It's got him freaking out. Yup, NKN was finally updated. It took three months, and I hope it never takes that long again. Thanks!  
  
**The Nameless Name**: I'm glad you have faith in Kaiba... now all he needs is a little faith in himself. You have a good point about Bakura's past life, and I will address it in a future chapter. You're right, Bakura's past has been altered, which means that his future self has to remember what happened. Bakura is just not willing to share that with anyone, not just yet. But he will eventually.  
  
**Tsuki Koumori Ryu**: Thank you very much! I'm happy to hear that this is your favorite story. It's very flattering and inspiring, in that it makes me want to write more. I'm very glad that you enjoyed the chapter, and don't worry about excessive writing. Feel free to write whatever you like. Thanks again!  
  
**Aura Black Chan**: Well, I'm not sure about everyone going home soon, but they will get home eventually. I've always liked the thought that Ryou could stand up to Bakura and I hate fics that write him as this meek little thing. I don't think he's like that at all.  
  
**Yugi-crazy**: Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad that you like the story, even though Kaiba being in the puzzle seems kind of weird.  
  
**Lilmatchgirl007**: Thank you very much for your kind words. It's great to know that you're enjoying the story.  
  
**Katkid**: Nope, things will definitely not be pretty when they get back (if they get back, I don't want to spoil anything ). Let's just say that Gozaburo is cruel and demented, and will have no problems using those things to his advantage. Thanks for the review!  
  
**Hopefire**: You're close... Gozaburo isn't one of the high priests, but he's close. You'll find out more in this chapter. I don't think you're going to like me very much at the end of the chapter, so as I told another reviewer, I'm going to go hide now.  
  
**Solitaire**: Have I ever told you how much I adore your reviews, both to this story and to Last Goodbye? They always make me smile, and I've eternally grateful for that. Nah, you're not a sick person at all... you're just in the right place at the right time for a little Seto torture. Yes, Yami is most definitely going to have a guilt trip. I can't wait to write that!  
  
Right now, Yugi doesn't really know what he's thinking. Bakura has completely blindsided him with all of it, but there will come a time when he'll be able to address it completely. I think Pharaoh Yami and Priest Seto are the ones that are going to get the shock of their lives when they hear what Yugi has to say. Actually, it was Priest Akunadin who did the whole thing. He didn't tell Yami's father that creating the items involved sacrificing 99 lives, because if he had, Yami's father would have told him not to do it. So if there's anyone to blame, Akunadin is your man. He's such a slimy bastard too! It was after he got the Millennium Eye that Seto was told that his father died...  
  
I hadn't realized that there had been more boxes released until recently. It's funny, but my box 7, which I just got, has episodes 172-189. My box 6 is the one that ends up like your box 7 does. I got box 8 too, which goes through episode 199. I've seen up to episode 210 in Japanese, so I can tell you that the Yugi/Kaiba duel against Dartz is definitely worth the wait. It's a really good duel. You'll love it. The Joey/Mai duel is excellent too. That comes after Joey/Varon.  
  
I've been having a lot of fun with Bakura. I think this is the first fic where I've actually written him in any sort of important way, and I need to start doing it more often. I'm just happy that I got the characterization right.  
  
Thanks so much for the long review. It made my day!  
  
**Katie Torango**: Yami and Kaiba are both complicated individuals and they're very passionate, which is why they're always at odds with each other. They have the potential to become great friends, if only they could get past the petty stuff they hate about each other. But alas, that might not ever happen. Yami gets a bit self involved and jumpy when it comes to Kaiba, so it's easy for him to not notice the good things Kaiba does, but it hopefully won't be like that forever. Thanks!  
  
Now on with the chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

**Part 21: Bitter Reunions**  
  
Yugi screamed. He didn't want to, didn't want to give Bakura the satisfaction of knowing he was hurt, but he couldn't help it. Bakura's beast kept attacking Ra, and every attack felt as if someone was hammering a nail into his heart. The pain from his fall had long since been replaced by the pain of maintaining Ra, so that he no longer felt whatever broken bones he'd suffered. He'd inflicted his own damage to Bakura; the thief's screams were a testament to that. However, Yugi was so out of it that he could not properly control the god. All he could do was tell it to defend, and the monster did as asked. He was still stunned that he'd been able to summon the monster at all, and would, under different circumstances, have been giddy with excitement, but at the moment, it was an effort to just keep his eyes open.  
  
'Just hold on a little more.'  
  
He kept telling himself that, even though Yugi had no idea what he was holding on for. Ra was an incredibly powerful monster, but without someone to properly control him, he was nothing more than a shield.  
  
"Are you ready to give up yet?" Bakura taunted from where he stood a short distance away. "You're not doing much with that god of yours, boy. I was hoping this would be a worthy match, but it looks like I'll be winning very soon."  
  
Yugi ignored Bakura and instead fought against a strong cough. He'd started coughing shortly after his fall, and at first, it hadn't been a big deal. Then blood started coming up with each cough, as it did now, and Yugi became concerned. The blood ran down his chin, and he felt as if he were drowning. Yugi was sure he was finally going to die, when the cough died down and he was able to breathe again.  
  
Bakura chose that moment to attack, but Ra deflected it and launched an attack of his own. Yugi saw Bakura being thrown back into the wall of what once had been a house, and the thief grunted in pain at the impact. Bakura got to his felt slowly, cursing Yugi the entire time.  
  
"You have guts, boy, I'll give you that. You look much worse than I do, so let's stop playing and finish this once and for all."  
  
Bakura's monster attacked again, and Ra was unable to deflect it this time. The god was hit, and Yugi's body felt the attack every bit as much as the monster did. Ra roared in pain, and Yugi's scream matched it.  
  
Yugi had finally had enough. He didn't want to feel pain anymore. He wanted to close his eyes and just sleep. It didn't matter if Bakura won anyway, because he was sure that the pharaoh would eventually defeat him. Yugi wasn't really needed. He was just a small part of the bigger picture, and he'd had enough. He closed his eyes, prepared to drift away, when he felt Ra move away from him. Startled, Yugi looked around as much as he could and saw that Ra had moved closer to Bakura's beast. Bakura was no longer looking in Yugi's direction. Instead, he was looking to his right, where the pharaoh and Yami now stood.  
  
Yugi sighed in relief, because the pharaoh was now controlling Ra. There was another flash of light, and Osiris suddenly appeared next to Ra. Yami had summoned his own god monster. It didn't matter, though. He felt good that his friends had finally arrived, because now Bakura would get what he deserved. It was too late for him, though. With a sad smile, Yugi closed his eyes again.  
  
"Yugi!"  
  
The startled shout brought Yugi out of the darkness he'd been about to sink into, and he found himself staring up at Kaiba. Yugi smiled. They'd found Kaiba and had hopefully helped him with his injuries by now. Good.  
  
"I'm glad you're okay," Yugi whispered and then regretted it as another coughing fit tore through him.  
  
"Don't say anything, just stay still. I'll get the priest and he'll heal you."  
  
"Did he heal you?" Yugi asked.  
  
Kaiba didn't have to answer the question, because Yugi could see the answer in his eyes. A profound sadness went through him at the thought that Kaiba would never be able to tell anyone about what had happened to him, and therefore would never be able to get help and heal.  
  
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Kaiba," Yugi continued. "Be strong, okay? You don't have to go through this by yourself."  
  
Kaiba shook his head. "You sound like you're saying goodbye, Yugi, and that's not acceptable."  
  
Yugi let out a short bark of laughter. "I don't want to feel the pain anymore."  
  
Kaiba clenched his jaw, and then ran a hand tenderly over Yugi's forehead. "Then shut up and let me go get the priest. Once he heals you, you'll feel no pain."  
  
Without another word, Kaiba got up and walked away, limping heavily as he went.  
  
"Be strong," Yugi repeated and closed his eyes once again.  
  
It was time to go.

* * *

Kaiba fought the pain in his legs and his back as he jogged to where he'd left the priest. He hadn't gone to fight Bakura like the pharaoh and Yami, but had been looking for Yugi instead. The thought of Yugi made Kaiba's stomach churn. The teenager's body had been mangled, the right shoulder dislocated and at a strange angle and his right leg broken. Yugi's right hip must have gotten dislocated as well, since the bone had been protruding enough that Kaiba had been able to see it through the fabric of Yugi's pants. Then there was the blood. One of Yugi's lungs had more than likely been punctured by a broken rib, and if Kaiba didn't get the priest to Yugi soon, Yugi was going to drown in his own blood.  
  
That thought kept Kaiba moving as fast as he could. Contrary to what Yami believed, Kaiba had not abandoned Yugi. If anything, he now felt a strange kinship with the boy. Their experience in the desert had forever bonded them, for better or worse, and he didn't want any harm to come to Yugi. What Yugi had said to him had also left him feeling out of sorts. 'Be strong', Yugi had whispered, in a tone so full of defeat that Kaiba had wanted to pull him up by the shirt and shake him. Yugi never gave up, and Kaiba felt that if Yugi died, a part of him would die with him.  
  
He reached the carriage he'd gotten out of, but the priest had not returned. He was about to circle the carriage in search of the priest when he was hit from behind. He fell to his hands and knees, stifling a moan as his body ached with the impact. He was flipped roughly onto his back and pinned down. Images of Hori and his men rushed through Kaiba's mind and he became paralyzed with fear. The paralysis lasted only a short moment, as his sense of self preservation kicked in stronger than it ever had before.  
  
"No, not again!" he shouted and struggled, but the pressure above him did not budge.  
  
Kaiba finally opened his eyes and was confronted not by Hori, but by another image from his nightmares.  
  
"Gozaburo?"  
  
The terror coursing through him did not abate at having found the identity of his attacker. Instead, it doubled, as his worst nightmare was suddenly and inexplicably, staring down at him. The man looked exactly like Gozaburo had before he'd died, except that this man was not wearing the trademark red business suit Gozaburo had been so fond of.. No, this one wore the garb of an Egyptian priest. The man stared down at Kaiba with such hatred and contempt that Kaiba wondered if they really weren't the same man.  
  
"I thought I took care of you, you meddling priest!" the man growled, ignoring Kaiba's outburst. "You will die today and I will possess the Millennium Rod once and for all."  
  
As if to prove his point, the Gozaburo look alike released one of Kaiba's hands and held the Millennium Rod in front of his face. The bottom of the rod had been removed to reveal a very sharp dagger, which the man now pointed at him. Letting go of one of Kaiba's hands had been a mistake, because Kaiba used the advantage to slam his fist against the side of the man's face, which sent the man flying to one side. Kaiba painfully picked himself up and made his way to where the Gozaburo look alike was getting up. Years of anger and hatred that he'd not been able to express for fear of retribution by Gozaburo bubbled up to the surface, and Kaiba screamed in rage. His body was aching and he could barely walk, but he made his way to the Gozaburo look alike, dragged him up and then hit him again.  
  
"I don't know who you are, what you want, or why you're doing this," Kaiba said as the man picked himself up again. "All I know is that you have that rod, and I need the priest to have it, because someone's life is in danger. Hand it over, or I will pry it out of your hand once I kill you."  
  
"Pretty words for a man who can not defend himself without this," the Gozaburo look alike held the Millennium Rod in front of him. "I took this from you with no trouble, and it will be no trouble to kill you."  
  
For a panicked moment, Kaiba wondered if the man knew how to use the rod. If that were the case, he'd be in major trouble. His mental question was answered as the item began to glow in the man's hands.  
  
"I'm not supposed to use these," the Gozaburo look alike said. "According to you, I'm not 'worthy' enough to handle one of these. That's why you kept me from advancing, kept me as your apprentice. What you don't know is that I can control the items, and I will take this one where it belongs."  
  
The rod flashed and Kaiba was pushed backwards by the rush of power aimed at him. The Millennium Puzzle glowed in response and sent out an equal wave of power. The Gozaburo look alike had not been prepared for him to retaliate and was caught off guard. He was slammed into the carriage and slumped to the ground, bleeding from a wound to the back of his head. Kaiba didn't know if the man was still alive and didn't bother to check. He walked to him, took the rod from the man's hand and smiled.  
  
"I told you I'd take it from you."  
  
Kaiba was by now shaking uncontrollably, and he had no outlet for the pent up emotions that were threatening to burst out of him like a broken dam. He pushed them down into the part of his mind that held everything he didn't want to deal with and continued on his search for the priest. The fight had taken its toll on him and the limp he'd had when this had started had turned much worse, so that he could only move very slowly. He cursed his weakness, disappointed in himself for not being able to overcome this. He was emotionally worn out and felt close to breaking. This was far from his normal, tight control, and he didn't know how to deal with it.  
  
Before he could think any more, he spotted the priest, along with four dead guards, lying next to the other carriage. When he got to his double, he saw a large blood stain spreading over the white robe from a stab wound to the stomach. This was not happening. The priest could not be dead. It was an eerie feeling, walking up to the man, seeing his double lying there, bleeding. Is this what he looked like to everyone else? Did he really look that peaceful when he was asleep?  
  
Kaiba kneeled next to the priest and felt for a pulse. He was gratified to find one, but it didn't change the fact that the priest was still unconscious. If he didn't get back to Yugi soon, the younger teen would be dead.  
  
"I don't know what to do with this," Kaiba said as he looked first at his double, then at the Millennium Rod in his hand. "How can I heal you with this?"  
  
As in response, the rod began to glow. Kaiba aimed the item at the priest's wound, like the priest had done to his wrist earlier, and willed the wound to go away. Kaiba didn't know if he'd been successful or not, until the priest began to stir. The priest's eyes opened, and his hand traveled down to his stomach.  
  
"You healed me," the priest said, eyes wide with surprise. "How did you do that?"  
  
Kaiba shrugged. "I don't know. It doesn't matter right now, because you have to get to Yugi. He's badly injured and needs help."  
  
The priest nodded and got to his feet. "Where is he?"  
  
Kaiba pointed in the direction he'd come from, and pulled himself up. The priest did the same, his eyes taking in the dead guards around him.  
  
"It was Kha, wasn't it?"  
  
Kaiba frowned. "If you mean that deranged priest, then yes," Kaiba replied, not mentioning the fact that the deranged priest looked exactly like his deranged adoptive father.  
  
"Where is he?"  
  
Kaiba led the priest to where Kha still lay unconscious. "I don't know if he's dead."  
  
Seto smirked. "He's not dead. He's going to stay alive and pay for what he's done."  
  
Seto recited a spell and then walked away.  
  
"What did you do?" Kaiba asked.  
  
"I put a binding spell on him so he won't go anywhere. Now, do you want me to get to Yugi or not?"  
  
Kaiba bristled at the harsh tone, but then shrugged it off. He did his best to walk normally but was aware of the priest's eyes on him the entire time.  
  
"You're still injured. I knew it from the moment we picked you up. Why didn't you tell me?"  
  
Kaiba did not turn to meet the priest's eyes. Instead, he continued his steady, but slow, walk towards Yugi.  
  
"One of my guards raped Hori's sister," the priest suddenly said in a soft voice. "I refused to let Hori kill him in retaliation, and he swore vengeance on me because of it."  
  
Kaiba's jaw clenched, as did his fists. He walked faster, refusing to let the pain hamper his movements any more that it already was.  
  
"I did not want to show that there was any sort of problem with the guards in front of the villagers, which is why I refused to let Hori kill the guard. The man was punished for what he did, however. I executed him myself for raping that woman."  
  
The words, however they were meant, only made Kaiba angrier. They only reminded him that he'd been caught in something he had absolutely nothing to do with, and would carry the scars of it for the rest of his life.  
  
"Hori said he'd make me feel what it had been like for his sister. Is that what he did to you, Kaiba?"  
  
Kaiba took a deep breath and then released it through clenched teeth. He didn't stop, nor give any indication that he'd heard the question. He would not admit what happened to anyone, not even to the priest, who was a duplicate of himself. He would have kept going, except Seto pulled him to a stop with a hand to the shoulder, which Kaiba immediately brushed away.  
  
"You need to let me heal you, Kaiba. Pretending that nothing happened is not going to do you any good."  
  
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Kaiba hissed. "You have no idea about what went on in that camp, and you don't give a damn either. You should be happy that Hori took whatever anger he had out on me and not on you. Now you're safe."  
  
Seto took a step back, apparently surprised by the sudden anger directed at him.  
  
"I want to help you, Kaiba. I can help you. Deluding yourself into believing that everything is okay is only going to make things worse."  
  
Kaiba shook his head. "If you want to help me, then leave me alone! Besides, what would you know? What do you have to base your conclusion on? What makes you the expert on what makes me well or what doesn't? You don't know me, Priest. You may look just like me, but you don't know me." He continued to walk, but Seto's arm stopped him. Kaiba pulled on it and pushed the priest away from him. "Don't touch me! Leave me the hell alone, okay?"  
  
The priest stood, speechless. Kaiba could care less what the man thought had happened. He could imagine all he wanted, but he was never going to get the truth out of Kaiba.  
  
"Just heal Yugi, that's all I ask."  
  
Priest Seto sighed and nodded in agreement, having given up for the moment. Kaiba led him to where Yugi was lying, and his heart stopped when he saw that Yugi was pale and very still.  
  
"Yugi?"  
  
With some effort, Kaiba kneeled next to the teen and put his fingers next to Yugi's throat. After a few seconds, he failed to find a pulse. He picked up Yugi's wrist, but could not find a pulse there either.  
  
"Yugi, answer me!"  
  
There was no response. The priest kneeled down as well and put his ear above Yugi's nose and mouth. He felt Yugi's chest for a moment, and then straightened up.  
  
"He's dead."

* * *

Yami's rage boiled over the moment he'd seen Yugi lying on the ground with Ra floating above him. Even from this distance he'd been able to tell that Yugi was badly hurt, and he'd turned to the pharaoh, letting the man know that as soon as Bakura was dealt with, he'd be next. Yami wanted nothing more than to go to his partner and friend and make sure he was okay, but knew that his first responsibility was to eliminate Bakura. His anger had been focused on Bakura the moment the pharaoh had taken control of Ra, which had helped Yami summon Osiris.  
  
Bakura, with only one monster, turned out to be more of a threat than Yami had thought. The shadow games he'd played with the Bakura that inhabited Ryou's body had been nothing compared to this all out duel, and Yami was proud to note that Yugi had been able to hold his own against the thief. Bakura was tenacious, but already injured. Even so, the monster he controlled was powerful. It had attacked both gods relentlessly until Ra and Osiris had inflicted major damage to it. It was then that Bakura decided to flee, and both he and his monster had disappeared.  
  
As both gods disappeared, Yami turned to the pharaoh. His hands were clenched into fists, and his blood was boiling. The adrenaline that had been running through his body during the fight with Bakura was at an all time high, and Yami badly needed to release it. He did the first thing that came to his mind, which was to punch the pharaoh. The man staggered with the blow, but did not fall, and Yami was satisfied to see blood dripping down the man's chin.  
  
"If only you would have begun your search earlier, then neither Yugi nor Kaiba would have been hurt."  
  
Pharaoh Yami touched his lips and clenched his own hands into fists.  
  
"How dare you strike me?" the pharaoh asked as he stepped closer to Yami. "You have no idea of the magnitude of the infraction you just committed."  
  
Yami laughed. "Spare me your indignation, Pharaoh, because I owe you no allegiance. You do not command me, nor do you control me. My loyalty here is to Yugi and Kaiba, and with your lack of action, you've managed to endanger both."  
  
Pharaoh Yami stood in front of Yami, both matched equally in both strength and determination. "If we'd left when you wanted to leave, Priest Seto would have been unable to come with us. If the priest hadn't been here, who would have healed Kaiba? Who would heal Yugi now?"  
  
"If we'd left when I wanted, Yugi and Kaiba would never have been injured in the first place. I haven't seen Yugi yet, but if he's hurt as bad as Kaiba is, I will hold you personally responsible. I do not care if you are the pharaoh or not, I will avenge my friends."  
  
Yami turned away and made his way to where Kaiba and the priest kneeled next to Yugi. As Yami got closer, he began to get a good look at Yugi's condition. He saw Kaiba feel for a pulse and then the priest listen to Yugi's breathing. When both men looked at each other, the expressions on their faces made Yami's heart constrict in dread. The priest said something, but Yami was too far away to hear it.  
  
"Is he okay?" Yami asked as he reached the two men. "What can you do for him?"  
  
Kaiba turned to Yami, and the expression Yami saw in Kaiba's face was one he had never seen before, one he hoped to never see again. Kaiba was in shock.  
  
"What's wrong, Kaiba? How is Yugi?"  
  
Kaiba swallowed a few times and then looked down at Yugi. Yami saw the delay tactic for what it was, so he kneeled next to Kaiba and forced the taller man to look at him.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"He's dead, Yami. Yugi is dead."  
  
Yami felt as if someone had kicked him in the stomach as his breath was knocked out of him. He couldn't have heard that correctly. He turned his attention to Yugi's pale face, bluish lips, and mangled body. It was not possible. Yugi was not dead. He returned his attention to Kaiba and said the only thing that occurred to him.  
  
"What?"

* * *

Yugi was flying. Well, not exactly flying, but floating. There was nothing around him, but the darkness didn't seem oppressive or frightening. Instead, it felt warm, cozy, and inviting. He felt no fear and no pain. His body was whole again, and Yugi laughed in contentment. He stretched his limbs and grinned at the wonderful, rested feeling that coursed through him.  
  
He stopped floating suddenly and found himself standing in the middle of a small garden. The place seemed vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't recall where he knew it from. A small swing set stood empty in the middle of the garden, and Yugi saw that a picnic lunch had been spread out on the grass beside it. He smiled at the sight. It looked so peaceful, so calm.  
  
Yugi frowned. There was something he was doing, somewhere he needed to be, but he couldn't recall what it was. He felt that it was important, but the feeling of safety this place gave him overrode everything else. He had wanted to be here, of that he was sure. He'd told himself that he wanted peace, but couldn't remember why he'd wanted it so badly.  
  
Shrugging, Yugi made his way to the swing set and stopped when a man and a woman walked out of the door to the house behind the swing set, which Yugi had neglected to notice until now. The woman saw him first, and her face lit up when she smiled at him.  
  
"Little one, there you are. We've been waiting a long time to see you again."  
  
The woman was short, thin, and sported a long mane of red hair. She held out her arms for Yugi to walk into, but he stood where he was. The woman was also familiar to him, but he couldn't place her.  
  
"It's okay, son," the man standing next to her, taller and with black and blonde hair, said. He also smiled and beckoned to him. "It's okay to hug your mother, Yugi. She's been waiting a long time to hold you again."  
  
Recognition hit him like an electric shock, and Yugi's eyes watered as he realized that he was indeed looking at his parents, the same people he'd last seen in caskets the day of their funeral. He'd longed to see his parents, hold them once again, ever since the day they'd died, and he couldn't believe that it was finally happening. Yugi ran to his mother and launched himself into her arms, grinning as her arms wrapped around him, surrounding him in the warmth and love that only a mother could give. A second pair of arms encircled him, and Yugi realized that his father was hugging him too.  
  
Tears fell unchecked down his cheeks, but Yugi felt no shame. "I'm so glad to see you, mom and dad. It's been so long."  
  
"I know, sweetie, I know," his mother whispered in his ear as her arms held him close to her. "You'll never have to leave us again."

* * *


	22. Tears in Heaven

Greetings! Yes, I'm still alive and quite whole after the last chapter. No one hunted me down, though plenty of you threatened to do just that. That's okay, though! I love it when readers get so into the story that they send the author threats. It's quite fun and I still adore you all for it. Nothing major in this chapter... well, not that I think is major anyway, just a lot more angst.  
  
Thanks to those of you who gave me Bakura's beast name. I knew I'd heard something like it when I was watching the Egypt episodes.  
  
Reviews (my apologies in advance if I miss one. I didn't do it on purpose!):  
  
**Verdragon**: See, I hurried! I didn't want to break your heart... then again, you may not think the situation is any better after you read the chapter.  
  
**Kitty Contraire**: Wow, you know, I hadn't even thought of that... happy birthday indeed. Thanks! I can't believe I've been writing this story for that long. It doesn't seem like it. Thanks for the compliment. I completely agree that most deaths in other fics are done simply as plot devices. Not that mine isn't, but at least it's worked in a different way. You're right, Yugi is a ray of light... poor Kaiba and Yami, plunged down into further darkness. Okay, I'll stop now before I depress you more.  
  
**Mittens no Hikari**: Yikes.... Mittens is speechless, huh? I think that's a first. I hope the update was soon enough for ya!  
  
**MollyJean**: Thank you very much for the compliment! I'm glad you're enjoying the story, even with the depressing stuff.  
  
**Mimiheart**: Now, now, let's not resort to cursing... we have some young readers in the audience. No, I definitely don't want you to hurt me, which is why I posted this chapter ASAP. However, you may still want to hurt me by the end of it, which is why I'm going to go hide now.  
  
**Lilmatchgirl007**: It seems like you caught on to the one little clue I dropped about Yugi. Congratulations! You're right, though; you'd think that with all those shiny, magical items, someone could do something, right?  
**  
Moonlitspire**: Have I ever misspelled your nickname? For some reason, I want to type Moonlitsprite. I'm awful sorry if I have misspelled it in the past. Anyway, Gozaburo's double had to have some mischievous things to do in the chapter, which worked out great. Kha is funny though. I'll have to write him in some more later on. Bakura is and shall always be Bakura. I like him because of it, though sometimes I wish he'd just chill. Then again, that would make him not Bakura, which wouldn't be cool.  
  
**Shadowwaker**: There is a reason I rarely go back and reread a chapter after I've posted it. I always hate it. I am glad, though, that the last one wasn't too horribly bad. This one should be better... I spent a lot more time on it.  
  
I know about Yugi's mom. However, out of 213 episodes, she's only been in two of them, so to me, she's pretty much not there. She's in the manga a lot, but I only use the later part of it (the Egyptian stuff) as reference and ignore the rest. I don't think they ever mentioned Yugi's father. I would love to know what happened to him. Thank you for the reply! I love hearing from you.  
  
**Ms. Zeal**: Weird story twists? In my stories? Are you sure you have the right author? I'm just kidding... don't ever rule anything out, that's my number one rule while writing. Anything and everything is possible. The spell book is back in the palace. It'll make an appearance at some point. Ever since I read your review, I've had the image of Gozaburo going through Yami's traps like Shadi did in that one episode. It's quite amusing. Too bad it didn't happen.  
  
**Amiasha Ruri**: Uh, oh... I've got another reader speechless. But I'm not entirely heartless and cruel. I skipped writing No Kinen Ni so I could write this one. The Yami/Pharaoh fight was fun to write. There's another mini one in this chapter. Seto and Kaiba are a great deal of fun too. I have big plans for them. Thanks for the review!  
  
**Skyla Doragono**: I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, even though it had to pull you off IRC. You know, I've tried to use that, but never have managed to get it to work. I can never find any channels to go to. Well, I know where I want to go, but I never can get there. That program just must not be for me.  
**  
Ieyre**: No, don't cry! It's okay... it'll all be okay... well, I don't really know that, but if it makes you feel better, sure!  
**  
Miss Sera**: Oh, no, another reader I've made cry. I'm going to have to talk to my muse about these ideas he puts in my head. He needs to be more considerate of the readers. Yes, I get the idea... all I can say is read a couple more chapters to see what happens.  
  
**Vappa**: Good to hear from you again! Chasm of despair, huh? I think that's an apt description of this (and most) of my stories. Too bad I can't draw what that brings to mind.... it'd be pretty interesting. Kha/Gozaburo was supposed to be out of the blue. I'm not quite through explaining all of that yet. Thanks for the review!  
**  
Luthien-Defender**: Oops! You bring up an interesting point. I did promise to return everything to Takahashi-san after the story was finished, didn't I? Darn, I should have thought of that first. &Hands Luthien a box of tissues& don't cry, it's okay... well, maybe. Just keep in mind that I do have to return the characters at some point. Thanks for the review!  
**  
MotherChowGoddess**: AmunRa pretty much does what the muse tells her to do. It's a strange relationship, I tell ya! It's hard to shut off that nagging little voice, especially when I'm already in the middle of a chapter. I see that you have experience as well. Those snarky little muses are a pain, but where would we be without them? Best of luck!  
  
**Black Rose**: You're the first person not to mind Yugi's death... I thank you from the bottom of my heart! I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope that you like this one too.  
  
**S.K**: Now that is really freaky, but kind of cool. What made you get out of Computer Science? It's good to know that I'm not the only one out there who likes computers and biological sciences.  
  
I'm glad that you didn't mind what happened with Yugi all that much. It just had to be done, considering what had happened before. Who knows, though... my muse is a willful little thing. Kaiba is going to continue to be Kaiba (denial, indifference, and self deprecation) until he either kills himself or breaks down and tells someone. You'll have to read and see what happens first.  
  
**AG the Master**: All I can say is keep reading... in a few chapters, you'll get your definite answer. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
**Adrie**: Thank you very much for your kind words, and for reviewing. I'm glad that you've been enjoying the story so far and that you like what I've done with the characters. I hope that you continue to enjoy it. Yugi's mother is alive, but out of 213 of the Japanese episodes, she's only been in two, so it's easy for me to pretend she doesn't exist. Actually, if you watch the English dub, she doesn't exist. They edited out the scenes with Yugi's mom, so in the English version, she's never been seen.  
  
**Dragon-Tsuzuku**: With magic, things are always possible, especially when you've got some strong willed individuals! Thanks for the reply.  
  
**Sugarpony**: You are correct in your assumption. Just keep in mind that Yugi, Yami and Kaiba are back in Egypt as souls, with magically created bodies, nothing more.  
  
**Millenniumgrl126**: Nope, don't kill me. Remember that you need me to be alive if you want to know how the story ends! Okay, you've decided on the rational thought and left me alive, so I've got a few chapters to close this out before you come after me. Thanks for the review and for the compliment. Keep reading!  
  
**KatKid**: Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Kaiba in character is really hard to do, because he can be so cold and ruthless sometimes that I hate to write him that way. However, I've found that the more I write him, the easier it becomes. I was reading portions of 'Pain the Sky with Stars' the other day and I was amazed at how bad my characterization was for that story. Oh, well... practice makes perfect, right?  
**  
Tsuki Koumori Ryu**: Yeah, Bakura got away... he had to, or what was supposed to happen in Egypt wouldn't happen, and Yami wouldn't end up in the puzzle... Sorry to have made you cry, though! Hopefully it won't be all bad. Sorry to have made you cry, though! Hopefully it won't be all bad. Crimson winter: Cliffhangers do suck, but I just can't help it. Blame my muse... he sits on my shoulder and convinces me to write those things, I swear! You made some very good observations about Yugi. All I can say is stick around for a few more chapters to see if you were correct.  
  
I'm glad you like the way I write Kaiba... he's a very complex character to write, but its well worth it. In my mind, Yami has always considered Kaiba a friend; he's just too stubborn to admit it. I don't think that he ever will, but his actions will speak for themselves, even when he's being mean to Kaiba. Kaiba and Yami fighting is just so much fun, so I'll definitely have more of that in later chapters. I'm not sure how much longer they'll be in Ancient Egypt, but that particular arc of the story is coming to a close. It could be about three or four more chapters. Thank you for the review!  
  
**Mutou Yasu:** Think what it would be like if you were to suddenly be stuck with an exact duplicate of yourself? I bet it'd get annoying really fast because that person would have the same traits as you. It's the same for Yami and Kaiba. They're so stubborn and loners to begin with that being stuck with duplicates of themselves just isn't working for them. Thanks for the review!  
  
**Solitaire**: Yup, sadly I did. Pharaoh Yami is in for a lot of bad vibes (and maybe a punch or two). We know how Yami gets when he's mad or sad, so he's not going to be happy. Sadly, the pharaoh isn't going to be the only one on the receiving end. More than anything, it drives Yami nuts to see the pharaoh, because he's essentially looking at himself. He can't intimidate or control the pharaoh, because the pharaoh is well prepared to deal with anything Yami throws at him. It's the same with Seto and Kaiba too.  
  
I don't think Akunadin goes for necromancy, though I think he can extract the ka out of people to make the monsters. That's what they Millennium Eye does, right? Kha isn't the same as Akunadin. The older priest had nothing to do with Seto's attack. Akunadin was attacked himself, which is how Kha was able to get to Seto and Kaiba. Kha is another deranged priest that will get more of a background later on in the story.  
  
Oh my God, that scene you mentioned with Kaiba and Kimo on Pegasus' island is my favorite! When I saw it, I couldn't believe they'd left something that cool out of the dub. There is definitely something about Kaiba taking control of the situation and kicking butt. My other favorite scene is when Pegasus sends his men to fetch Kaiba and they find him in his office at home. They shoot at him and he deflects the bullets with the briefcase before jumping out of the window... so cool!  
  
Umm... you definitely know Yami well, so start fearing for Kaiba's sanity now. I'm starting to think that when I get through with this story, poor Kaiba isn't going to be very sane. Then again, I don't think that anyone, including myself, is going to be sane when this is done. Yup, I got the hint...lol! You never know what can happen! Like I said, I'm not opposed to the idea.  
  
I'm sorry to hear about you and your sister breaking your partnership. It's got to be hard, especially when you're so used to writing together. But there is a freedom to writing alone too. Which of your stories would you recommend I read first? I've been looking them over, but I can't make up my mind. I think I might have read something of yours when I first started reading YGO stuff, because your name was familiar when it popped up in my reviews, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was. Sorry for not reviewing then.  
  
Thanks again for taking the time to write such awesome reviews and enjoy the chapter.  
**  
Saiyan Jedi:** I received no flames, which was a good thing. My readers all understood why it was done, and why it made sense to the story. They may not have been happy about it, but they didn't flame me, which was cool. Thanks for the fire extinguisher, though! I may have some use of it sometime. Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**A fan**: Thanks for the review. I don't want to give anything away (I'm mean that way :o)) so all I'll say is that you should read the next two chapters to get your response.  
  
**Hobbit13**: Uh, oh... yet another speechless reader. Glad you saw the logic in the story and decided not to have me gutted. I would have missed that particular part of my anatomy, you know. Oh, yes, there will be more violence and blood in this chapter. I seem to have a thing for doubles fighting each other. Thanks for the review and stay tuned for more!  
**  
Aura Black Chan**: You're welcome! It was a very sweet story and I really liked it.  
  
Yugi is definitely a strong individual, and I always write him that way. He may look young and meek, but I never thought he was. Priest Seto has a lot more depth than I've written for him. He may be misguided, but he's not a bad person. Pharaoh Yami isn't a bad person either; he's just used to getting his way. Leave it to Yami to be the first to get in the way.  
  
**Anonymous**: Oh, yes, turnabout is definitely fair play. I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far, and I hope that you continue to do so. Thank you for reviewing!  
**  
PyroDragon2006**: Yami, remembering logical stuff before doing something rash? Nah... you know him, he'll act first and ask questions later. It was quite a fun scene to write. Believe me, Priest Seto and Kaiba are going to have that conversation you're talking about sooner or later. Glad you liked the chapter!  
  
**Innominate**: I skipped writing No Kinen Ni to get this out (I couldn't skip Last Goodbye, because the chapter was almost finished), but I'm not sure if it'll be on time for you to read it before you go on your trip. I hope it is. You're hopping onto the right bandwagon, my friend, just stay tuned to see what happens. I'm curious about that spin off you mentioned. Don't keep it in your head... write it down, see where it goes. You never know what might happen! Besides, I think it'd be cool to read how someone else perceives this story. If you ever do put it down, I'd like to read it.  
  
Thank you for the review, and I hope that you have an excellent trip!  
  
**Hopefire**: When I started writing that chapter, I had absolutely no intention of killing off Yugi... I had never even considered it. But the more I wrote, the more it seemed to fit. But you're right on a few things, so keep reading to see how your theories panned out. Thank you so much for the review, and I hope you enjoy the Egyptian arc of the manga. It's very good!  
  
**Nenya85**: I loved the point you made about Seto and Kaiba and how they see each other, and Kaiba's motivations. I doubt Kaiba consciously does any of those things anymore, because Gozaburo did an incredibly good job of making him believe his ideals for the 'prefect son, perfect head of the company' kind of deal. In that environment, Kaiba survived the only way he could, which was by submerging himself so deep that he has never been able to find that part of him. Lying, deception, and avoidance are things he does naturally by now.  
  
On the other hand, Mokuba grew up with Kaiba, who let him be a kid, let him be at peace and enjoy his life. Mokuba has never had to submerge his personality and his beliefs, which makes it easier for him to trust. He gave Jou the computer codes in case he couldn't be around to destroy Gozaburo, but never did he think that Jou could betray him with them. Mokuba has not been conditioned to think that way. If you think about it, Kaiba gave up a lot for Mokuba to grow up the way he did.  
  
Yami may be stubborn, but he's not entirely cold or unfeeling. He respects Kaiba as a rival, but he also sees him as a friend. Yami would never admit that to anyone. I don't think he's even willing to admit that to himself, but the feelings are there. He wouldn't have made such a big deal for both Yugi and Kaiba if he didn't care about Kaiba at all. Dealing with Yugi isn't going to be easy for either, and I think they're going to end up making it worse on themselves, and each other.  
  
Wow, sorry for the long reply. You made some excellent points that I wanted to touch upon. Thank you so much for taking the time!  
  
**Yuki Tsukihana:** Did Mistress Yuki have fun punishing the evil thief?? I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**TZ**: Uh, oh... you don't want to kill me. Remember that in order to get to the end of the story, I have to be alive to write it.  
  
Yami did scary impersonations of Yami Malik's face? Wow... I can't believe I missed that. I have episodes 211 through 213 that I haven't had a chance to watch. I finally managed to get them downloaded. I'll probably watch this weekend. Have they gotten to the point where Bakura duels Yugi in the memory world? I'm looking forward to that.  
  
**Bayleef**: Okay, so a death can be considered a dark thing in the chapter. I just didn't want to scare you all ahead of time. I'm sorry that I made you cry! I didn't mean to, really I didn't. Keep huggling those plushies, because they're going to need major love after all this is over with. Thanks!  
**  
Silver Dragon Golden Dragon**: Oops! I hope you didn't hurt yourself too much when you passed out!  
  
**TheNamelessName**: Deep breaths are recommended in all cases of shock. I'm glad that you waited to cool off, though if you'd have yelled at me, it would have been no different than most every one else I'm kidding. I'll see what I can do about the death thing. I definitely want to avoid the readers strike. How about I tell you to read the next two chapters so you'll get a definite response?  
  
I definitely understood what you meant. I already have a Bakura scene planned where he deals with his suddenly new memories. It's going to be fun. Bakura was defeated, so he disappeared. The way they do it in the anime is that the person who is defeated (but not killed) sort of goes away and wakes up somewhere else to lick his wounds. I'm assuming this is what happened with Bakura.  
  
Kha (Gozaburo's double) is definitely going to have some questions about why there are two Setos. He'll be dealt with in a future chapter as well, because I still have to build him a back story. Seto and Kaiba still have a lot to talk about, and believe me, it's not going to be easy for either of them.  
  
Thank you for taking the time to write such an in depth review. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
Well, not that reviews are done, it's time for the chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

**  
Part 22: Tears in Heaven**  
  
Gozaburo had enough of waiting. The spirit of the puzzle should have come to greet him as soon as he'd entered the puzzle, to at least find out why there was an intruder in the puzzle, as the sprit of the ring had done, but so far, Gozaburo had seen no one. Where was the spirit? Would the spirit's absence explain why Yugi had been unconscious for as long as the boy had been at the mansion? Could something have happened? Gozaburo shook off that line of thinking. This was a millennia old spirit he was thinking about. He couldn't be killed and could only be permanently sealed when the item was destroyed. Gozaburo would just have to bide his time until the sprit returned, and hopefully he'd run into the soul of this adoptive son while he was at it.  
  
He got out of his chair and walked around Seto's soul room, chuckling at the thought of running into the boy.  
  
'He's not a boy anymore, he's a young man,' Gozaburo corrected himself.  
  
His time in the computer had gone by both fast and slow, and it still surprised him that his adoptive son was no longer the little boy that could be easily manipulated and dragged around at his whim. Granted, Gozaburo hadn't had time to properly speak to his son since he'd gotten out of the computer. The only conversations they'd had had been through someone or something else, and Gozaburo was looking forward to finally facing off with his adoptive son here, in the young man's soul room. There were a lot of unresolved issues between them, and Gozaburo was definitely going to make Seto pay for stealing his company and his life. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation of the battle to come.  
  
As he walked around the room, it began to shift and change. The metal workbenches and computers that had been spotless were now rusted and in disrepair. Sand coated every available surface, and Gozaburo heard something dripping at the back of the room. Curious, he headed in that direction and saw that there was a crack in the white wall at the back of the room. Blood oozed out of the crack and dripped down to the white titled floor, leaving a red puddle among the white tiles.  
  
Gozaburo frowned. If he recalled correctly, the soul room reflected the personality of the person that inhabited it, which was why he hadn't been surprised to see the computers and technical equipment in the room when he'd first come in. Wouldn't the soul have to be present in the room to alter the room's appearance? Since this room had changed, would the others rooms have experienced something similar?  
  
Gozaburo left Seto's room and headed towards Yugi's. He expected to see the childish room he'd seen earlier, but instead found nothing but a dark room. The walls were black and purple, and the colors seemed to shift in intensity with each passing second. The toys and furniture that had originally been in the room were gone, replaced by a floor of sand. In the middle of the floor, a mound broke the smoothness of the sand. Gozaburo stepped into the room and examined the mound, but it looked like nothing more than a very small sand dune.  
  
He left Yugi's room and went across the hallway to the room that belonged to the spirit of the puzzle. He pulled open the door, but had barely taken a step inside when the door slammed closed. An invisible force had pushed him out of the room and into Yugi's room as the door had closed, but the glance he'd gotten at the room told Gozaburo that the room wasn't as it had been earlier either.  
  
Where were the souls? What was happening to them to make them alter their soul rooms from somewhere outside of the puzzle? Gozaburo got to his feet and rubbed his hands together once again. He loved a good mystery and couldn't wait until this one was solved.

* * *

_Would you know my name  
If I saw you in heaven?  
Would it be the same  
If I saw you in heaven?_  
  
"Yugi is dead."  
  
The words hit Yami like a whip, and he turned to glare at Kaiba, who had dared utter them. Kaiba's face was a myriad of emotions, which Yami had never seen before. The normally calm and collected teenager looked heartbroken and defeated. Yami turned away and stared down at Yugi's mangled body. His face was covered in bruises, blood, and dirt, and his hair was matted to his forehead. Yugi's eyes were closed and a peaceful smile had been left on his face. What had Yugi been thinking when he died? Had he been afraid? Had he been in pain? Had he wondered why nobody had come to help him? Had he felt alone and deserted?  
  
"Do something, Priest. You can heal with the Millennium Rod, can't you?" Yami asked, turning to the stunned priest kneeling beside him.  
  
"I can heal the living, not bring back the dead," he replied.  
  
"Why didn't you get to Yugi sooner? We waited to come looking for Kaiba and Yugi until you had recovered from the poison specifically because you have the power to heal. Now you're telling me that you can't do anything?"  
  
Yami didn't understand how this had happened. When they'd gotten there, Yugi had been alive. He'd even summoned Ra. Yami had felt afraid for Yugi due to the situation he was in, but at the same time, had been proud that Yugi had been able to harness the power of the Millennium Puzzle to summon the most powerful of the Egyptian Gods. How had the situation come to this?  
  
"I was attacked by one of my apprentices," the priest explained. "Kha has now been subdued, Pharaoh," the priest added when the pharaoh had been about to say something. "Kaiba came to get me, told me that Yugi was injured, and we headed back as soon as we could, but we were too late."  
  
At that, Yami turned to face Kaiba. "Did you speak to Yugi Was he conscious when you found him?"  
  
"He was conscious," Kaiba said, his voice soft, subdued. "He said he was in pain and was tired. I told him to hang on while I went to get the priest. I was attacked by the same priest that attacked Seto and lost some time."  
  
They had missed the chance to save Yugi's life by mere minutes. If only they'd left the palace when he'd wanted to, if only they'd not spent so much time going around in circles following false leads, if only... there were too many of those to ponder now that it was too late to do anything. There were too many regrets and roads not taken to go back and examine them all now.  
  
Yami bent his head and screamed a wordless scream that conveyed only a fraction of the despair, pain, and loneliness he felt. He raised his head to the sky and screamed again as tears fell down his cheeks. He clenched his hands and wanted nothing more than to hit something, anything, to make him stop feeling as if his heart was being slowly broken into millions of little pieces. He took in a breath to scream again, but started to sob instead. He lovingly traced Yugi's features with his index finger, letting his tears fall onto Yugi's face. He pushed back Yugi's hair and lowered his head so that he could lay a kiss on Yugi's cold forehead.  
_  
I must be strong  
And carry on,  
'Cause I know I don't belong  
Here in heaven.  
_  
"We should go."  
  
The pharaoh's words hit something in Yami; something that was let loose the instant the pharaoh touched his shoulder. Without conscious thought, Yami was on his feet and the pharaoh was not. Yami didn't know how it happened, but the pharaoh was on his butt in the sand, holding a hand to his bleeding nose.  
  
"I told you I would make you pay if my friends got hurt," Yami growled. "Yugi is now dead because of you. Kaiba would have been dead if we hadn't found him. It all happened because you wanted to wait for your priest, who in the end did nothing he was supposed to do."  
  
The high priest took a step towards him, the Millennium Rod held in front of him. Yami whirled around to face him, which stopped the priest in his tracks. Yami didn't know what he looked like, nor did he care, but it was enough so that the priest got the message and put the rod down.  
  
"This is between me and the pharaoh," Yami said.  
  
"Who do you think you are?" the pharaoh asked as he got to his feet, his own fists clenched in fury. "You have no right to do this. You're in my land, my country, my time. If I had chosen to, I could have had you executed when you first showed up. I gave you the benefit of the doubt."  
  
Yami advanced on the pharaoh, who stood his ground. "I have done nothing to you. We have done nothing to you," Yami added, gesturing to Kaiba, who was still kneeling beside Yugi. "I gave you my word that we meant no harm, and I kept it. You, on the other hand, did not. I also gave you my word that I would make you pay if either Kaiba or Yugi got hurt, and I intend to keep it."  
  
His Millennium Puzzle began to glow and the pharaoh's began to glow in response. He summoned his power and kept it contained until the time came to strike. He had no doubt that the pharaoh's control of the shadows was better than his, because he lacked all of his memories, but Yami didn't care. He hadn't done this since Yugi had first freed him from the puzzle, back when Yugi had not been aware of his existence. He'd taken revenge for many of the atrocities committed against Yugi in this manner, and this one was no exception. It didn't matter that he was essentially arguing with himself. All that mattered was that Yugi was dead, and the pharaoh had to pay.  
  
"If you harm him, you'll be changing your own future, Yami. I don't think Yugi would have wanted that for you."  
  
Yami turned to Kaiba, whose head was lowered so that his hair covered his face. Kaiba's hand was around Yugi's, and there was just something about seeing Kaiba that way that defused Yami's anger. He closed his eyes and tears begin to fall down his cheeks again. He released his anger, his power, and the puzzle ceased to glow. Now all he had left was a dull ache in his heart, an ache that no amount of revenge would ever cure.  
  
"Like I said earlier, we have to go."  
  
Yami ignored the pharaoh and walked to Yugi instead. Kaiba had bent down and almost had Yugi in his arms, and seeing that made Yami's anger return. He rushed to Kaiba and pushed him to one side, away from Yugi, which caused the taller teen to stumble and land on his side. Kaiba hissed as he hit the sand, but quickly covered any discomfort. The part of Yami that was still rational saw this and wondered why Kaiba was still hurt and how he'd gotten hurt, but the part of Yami that was grieving felt nothing but anger for his rival.  
  
"What right do you have?" Yami hissed. "You are responsible for this too, Kaiba. It's your fault Yugi was with Bakura in the first place. If you had helped him when he needed you, he wouldn't be dead."  
  
With those words, Yami picked Yugi up and walked towards the carriages. Akunadin, who had only just now regained consciousness from his brush with Kha, stared at him in disbelief at what he was carrying.  
  
"What happened?" the priest asked, but Yami ignored him.  
  
He didn't care about anyone anymore. Looking down at Yugi's peaceful face, he couldn't help but feel that he should have been the one to die. He'd already had a life; the pharaoh was ample proof of that. He'd ruled a country, somehow let it be destroyed, and ended up stuck in a magic trinket for three millennia. Yugi had only been a boy; he'd lived sixteen years of what should have been a long and peaceful life.  
_  
Would you hold my hand  
If I saw you in heaven?  
Would you help me stand  
If I saw you in heaven?_

* * *

_  
I'll find my way  
Through night and day,  
'Cause I know I just can't stay  
Here in heaven._  
  
Kaiba didn't feel like getting up. He would be more than happy to lie on the sand and let the sun do away with him. He was tired of everything. He didn't want to deal with Yami, didn't want to deal with the pharaoh or the priest. Most of all, he didn't want to deal with the fact that Yugi was dead. Yami had been right, it had been partially his fault, but not for the reasons Yami thought. Kaiba should have been able to help Yugi when Bakura had attacked them. He should have tried harder to get to Bakura to help Yugi instead of giving in to his body's weakness. It didn't matter any more anyway, because the damage was already done.  
  
A hand appeared in front of him and Kaiba didn't immediately react to it. Instead, he clenched his teeth and got to his feet in one fluid motion. There was no way he was going to take someone's help, especially not now. Whatever feeling of belonging he'd had while he'd shared the Millennium Puzzle with Yugi had left with Yugi, and the reason he'd spent the majority of his life as a loner had just been made painfully clear to him. Trust, friendship, and hope came with a price. It was better to remain alone and not let anyone hurt him.  
  
"I don't need your help," Kaiba said and walked away, doing his best not to limp, and left the pharaoh to stare after him.  
  
After a few moments, the pharaoh caught up with him. He didn't say anything at first, which was fine with Kaiba. He didn't feel like having a conversation with anyone anyway.  
  
"Yami and Seto are going to take one of the carriages, along with Akunadin and half of the guards. Why don't you and I take the other?"  
  
Kaiba shrugged. He didn't care, though it probably would be better if he and Yami weren't sharing the same space. He was tired of fighting and he just wanted to be left alone. He followed the pharaoh to the carriage and settled down at the back of it. His body hurt, so he brought his knees up to his chest and hugged them, resting his chin on them so that his face was turned away from the pharaoh and the guards that accompanied them. He felt hollow, devoid of anything. He had never felt this way before, not even when his adoptive father had been alive. Back then, he'd had anger to fuel him and the desire to make life better for him and his brother. He'd lived off of that bottled up emotion until the day Gozaburo had died. He'd survived the years of abuse that way, never letting Gozaburo know how much he'd been hurting, how much he'd been humiliated, and how alone he'd felt.  
  
It was different now. He didn't even have the anger, just a dull ache and immeasurable guilt. He closed his eyes and flashed back to the second time he'd woken up after he'd been attacked. He'd woken up to find Yugi kneeling beside him, a shoe in his hand. Yugi had told him that he was going to put the shoe back on and had done it with such care that Kaiba had been touched by that simple act of kindness. The emotion on Yugi's face had been one of sadness and helplessness, and for once, it had been because someone cared. Yugi had been sad for what had been done to him, which was the first time that anyone other than his brother had showed that they gave a damn about him. Kaiba didn't think he'd ever forget the look on Yugi's face that day.  
_  
Time can bring you down,  
Time can bend your knees.  
Time can break your heart,  
Have you begging please, begging please._  
  
A tear slipped out of his closed eyes but Kaiba let it go. He didn't care anymore. Who was around to judge him? Who would give a damn if he cried or not? Besides, Yugi deserved his tears. It was the least he could do for him now, after not being able to do anything to save his life.  
  
"I am sorry about your friend."  
  
The pharaoh's voice cut through Kaiba's thoughts, but he chose to keep his face turned away. What was he supposed to say now? Yugi hadn't really been his friend. He had no right to feel sad or grieve, because he hadn't been a part of Yugi's life. That thought made Kaiba even sadder, and he regretted never taking the opportunities Yugi had given him to get to know him. Yugi had always tried to befriend him, tried to include Kaiba in his group, his life, and Kaiba had always turned Yugi away with a snarl and a snide comment. It was too late for that, though. Regrets were not going to bring Yugi back. Kaiba took a deep breath and decided that it was time to stop the foolishness and get himself back together.  
  
"Yugi and I weren't friends," Kaiba finally said. "We were rivals, nothing more."  
  
"You seem pretty shaken up by his death. I really am sorry. It was not my intention for that to happen."  
  
Kaiba shook his head and finally turned to face the pharaoh. Seeing the pharaoh made Kaiba think of Yami and the last thing he'd said, which made Kaiba angry and sad at the same time. He decided to shove the sadness into a corner of his mind and let the anger grow.  
  
"I don't give a damn what your intentions were or what you feel. What's done is done. I'm sure Yami will give you enough grief about it, so you don't have to worry about me doing the same." A thought occurred to Kaiba, and he had to voice it before he forgot to. "Why is Yami blaming you for this anyway?"  
  
The pharaoh had the decency to look ashamed and slightly regretful. He turned away from Kaiba and rested his hands on the puzzle around his neck.  
  
"Seto was poisoned in the attack. He would have died if he didn't receive the antidote and got some rest," the pharaoh explained. "I told Yami that we would come looking for you and Yugi when Seto recovered. He thinks that if we had left sooner, we would have gotten to you in time."  
  
Kaiba's eyes widened a bit at that. "Would you have gotten to us sooner?" he asked, wondering if Yami was right, if both he and Yugi could have been spared what had happened both in the bandit's camp and with Bakura, if only the pharaoh had decided to leave sooner.  
  
The pharaoh sighed. "I don't know. I'm beginning to think that it really wouldn't have made that much of a difference. Yugi is dead and you're still hurt. Why didn't you tell Seto to heal you completely? What caused your injuries?"  
  
"That is none of your business."  
  
"I think that it is my business, especially if I'm going to have Yami throwing the blame at my feet."  
  
Kaiba chuckled ruefully. "I doubt Yami gives a damn about what did or did not happen to me in the desert. He's grieving for Yugi, and that's all he cares about. As long as you're clear on that, what happened to me is my concern and no one else's."  
  
The pharaoh didn't seem convinced.  
  
"Fine, so I won't push you about the details. Why don't you let Seto heal you? You're still alive, he can still help you."  
  
Kaiba shook his head. "It doesn't matter any more, Pharaoh. It just doesn't matter."  
  
Kaiba turned away. What happened in the desert was his shame to carry and the injuries were his to endure. He was beginning to think that it was his punishment for the many wrongs he'd committed in his life. While before there had been someone who understood him as he was now, who knew the reason why he'd changed, now there was no one. He would have to carry his memories alone, his shame alone, because the only person who had been there, the only person that would have been able to see past his cold exterior to the damaged interior was no longer alive.  
  
_Beyond the door,  
There's peace I'm sure,  
And I know there'll be no more  
Tears in heaven._

* * *

_Would you know my name  
If I saw you in heaven?  
Would it be the same  
If I saw you in heaven?_

The picnic with his parents had been wonderful. Yugi couldn't remember the last time food had tasted as good as what he'd just eaten and he'd enjoyed every bite. His parents hadn't been able to stop smiling at him and touching him, as if they still couldn't believe that he was really with them. Yugi was embarrassed to admit that he'd been doing the same thing, because he still couldn't believe that he was really with his parents. After the first half of lunch, Yugi had decided to accept things as they were and enjoy the company of his parents.  
  
"So Yugi, what do you like to do? Are you an active boy?"  
  
Yugi laughed at his father's question. "I'm afraid not, Dad. I'm a bit short, so athletics are not really my thing. I'm good with games, though."  
  
"Really?" his mother said. "What kind of games?"  
  
Yugi shrugged and leaned towards her, resting his shoulder on hers as she put her arm around him. "I like all kinds of games. I got most of them from Grandpa, so there were always new ones to try. I particularly like one called Duel Monsters."  
  
"Father did always have an obsession for that game," Yugi's father said. "I remember him playing it ever since I was a little boy. He never could teach me to play it, so I'm glad he taught you."  
  
Thinking about his grandfather made Yugi remember the feeling he'd had when he first got here, like there was something important he needed to be doing. Being with his parents was great, but it didn't feel right. He looked around at the blue sky, open spaces and rolling hills and he couldn't imagine there being somewhere better he had to be. He felt at peace here. He was healthy and felt no worry and no pain. At that thought, Yugi frowned. Why would he be worried about feeling pain?  
  
"Yugi, would you like us to show you around?"  
  
Yugi nodded, unable to say no to his smiling mother. He smiled in return and got off the ground. His parents followed his lead, but not before giving him another hug. It felt so good to be surrounded by people that loved him. He couldn't remember the last time that he'd felt this protected and safe.  
  
"Where are we going?" Yugi asked.  
  
"We can go anywhere," his father replied and gestured at the view in front of him. The hills were lush and green, full of wild flowers in a variety of colors. In the distance, Yugi could see mountains. He stared at the scene before him and gasped in awe.  
  
"It's beautiful. Where are we?" Yugi asked.  
  
"Honey, we can be anywhere you want to be. All you have to do is think of a place you want to go and we'll be there."  
  
That sounded interesting. Where would he like to be? Yugi pondered the question for a moment and before he knew it, he found himself standing in the middle of a desert. In the distance, he could see a small village. If he turned the other way, he could see the distant outlines of the pyramids of Menkaure, Khafre, and Khufu.  
  
"Ancient Egypt, huh?" Yugi's father asked. "Did my father fill you with stories of his travels in Egypt? He had a lot of those, you know."  
  
Yugi smiled. "Yes, grandfather did tell me all of his stories," he replied, but didn't think that was the reason he was here.  
  
Something was nagging at his brain, something he had to remember about Egypt. Something had happened in the desert. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that it was something horrible, and a part of him wanted to turn away and not remember anything about it. That part of him also knew that it was easier to turn around and walk away. He started to turn, when a voice in the distance stopped him in his tracks.  
  
"Let go of me!" the voice pleaded, horror and desperation clearly evident in the cry. "You've got the wrong person, stop!"  
  
Yugi turned to his parents, who were looking in the direction the voice had come from.  
  
"He sounds like he's in desperate need," his mother commented.  
  
Yugi turned fully in the direction of the voice. He knew that voice, didn't he? Hadn't he heard it when it was pleading for the men to stop? Yugi frowned. How had he known there were men involved? He shook his head. He didn't want to remember. He was shaking in fear at the implications that voice brought and Yugi didn't want to face it.  
  
"You killed us, little boy, you killed us all."  
  
Pain rushed through Yugi's head and he dropped to his knees, clutching at it. No, he didn't want this. He had come here to escape it all because he couldn't face it. He didn't want to know what had happened.  
  
"So that's how you want to decide this, my monster and your god. That's fine with me, boy. Let's see whose spirit is stronger."  
  
"No!" Yugi yelled, still clutching at his head.  
  
His body began to ache, a horrible ache that spread from his head down to his toes. Visions began to flash through his head: a tall, blue eyed boy being pinned to the sand by almost a dozen men, screaming and struggling desperately to get free... the same men walking towards him with lifeless eyes in a inky, black and purple darkness, pointing at him, accusing him of murder... a white haired thief, taunting him, hurting him... a golden monster, growling in defense of him... kind violet, almost scarlet, eyes smiling at him, caring for him... a boy with shaggy blonde hair and a goofy smile... another white haired boy, this one with warm brown eyes and a beautiful smile... a beautiful, brown haired girl with a kind face and bright, blue eyes... a smaller, blonde haired girl with glasses... a tall brown haired, brown eyed boy with a brilliant smile and goofy demeanor... a tall dark haired boy with a dice hanging from one ear...  
  
Yugi screamed as the visions invaded his mind. He knew those people, but he also knew that if he fully accepted the memories, he wouldn't be able to stay where he was, away from the pain and the fear. He wanted so desperately to stay here with his parents. He needed to feel safe and loved and protected. He looked up at his parents, whose faces reflected their sadness and helplessness.  
  
"Help me," Yugi asked them. He reached out to take their hand, but they stayed out of reach. "Please help me."  
  
His father kneeled beside Yugi. "This is your choice to make, son. If we help you fully cross over, there will be no going back. Right now, you still have the choice to go back if you so desire. It won't be easy, but it can happen."  
  
His father held out his hand, and his mother stepped to the other side of him and did the same. "We can help you, but you have to decide what you want."  
  
Yugi looked at both of their faces, which he hadn't seen for over ten years and couldn't decide. Did he want to stay here with his parents, safe and protected forever, or did he want to go back to the desert, where Kaiba was hanging on to his sanity by a thread and Yami was desperately trying to piece together his past? Hadn't he already done enough? Hadn't he already sacrificed enough for them? Didn't he deserve happiness too?  
  
With effort, Yugi began to move his hand towards his father's. This was the right choice, wasn't it?  
  
_I must be strong  
And carry on,  
'Cause I know I don't belong  
Here in heaven._

* * *

**_Song credit: Tears in Heaven, performed by Eric Clapton_**  
  



	23. Troubled Souls

Greetings! Welcome, once again, to another riveting and depressing chapter of this horribly long and depressing tale. I regret to inform you that my muse has decided to take over and take this story in a direction I hadn't quite counted on, so be prepared for a longer run (I can hear the groans already). However, you will be pleased to know that the gang will be going back to Japan next chapter (unless my muse pulls something else out of his hat and hits me over the head with it) so that should answer a lot of your questions. I hope you all stick around and enjoy!  
  
Reviews:  
  
**Vappa**: Thanks for the compliment! You're right, the soul room is a great device to play with, because it is supposed to reflect the person's feelings/inner personality. Just wait until Yami, Yugi and Kaiba see each other's rooms. That's going to be fun.  
  
As for the hopes... well, you never know what's going to happen, do you? :o)  
  
**Ms. Zeal**: You have a very good point, and it's exactly what I was thinking. Yami isn't going to become less guarded because of his journey back to the past. If anything, I think he's likely to become even more guarded. He'll always be protective and secretive, but the way he manifests that is always open to change. That's what Kaiba saw, a different way that Yami manifested the protection of his inner soul.  
  
**Shadowwaker**: I'm glad you were able to see what was coming! The logic and rules of the story kind of gave it away if you were paying close enough attention, and I'm glad that you were. This chapter won't come as much of a surprise to you then. Nope, I'm not being easy on Kaiba at all. Actually, I'm being as true as I can in dealing with that particular subject matter, and it is not an easy thing. Of course, it helps that it's happening to Kaiba. He's just great to torment.  
  
About the illustration: I have lots of ideas, but I don't want you to have to do too much work on it, unless, of course, you actually want to. I curse my inability to draw every day, because I get such vivid pictures in my head that I can't put on paper. Well, I do it through words, but it's not quite the same. My first thought was, of course, of Kaiba, his double, Yami, his double, and Yugi. That would be a hell of a lot of work, though. My second thought was of Kaiba and Yugi in the desert when Yugi woke up and found Kaiba by the rock. That would be quite a lot of work too. Anything in Ancient Egypt, preferably focusing on Yugi and/or Kaiba would be great. Like I said, I would hate to make you work too much on the illustration. Anything you'd be willing to share would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!  
  
**Me!:** Hey there, me! Don't throw a tantrum, here's the next chapter (hands chapter over carefully, avoiding flying hands and feet). Twixs are good, aren't they? They definitely get the mind going when it's ready to shut off (mouth waters at the thought of Twix, but since I'm all out, I'll have to settle for brownies.)  
  
**Luthien-Defender**: You cried during Spider-Man 2? During which scene? I cried during the scene in the train... aww, so sad. Tobey McGuire is so hot!! I've seen the movie twice (once with my roommates and once with my dad) and since they have it out on IMAX now, I'm tempted to go see it on the big screen.  
  
Is Yugi's mom really in the dub? Cool! I must have missed that episode completely. I actually do remember the episode but don't remember seeing her. I have it on tape somewhere, but am too lazy to go look for it.  
  
Yup, I definitely know what's going on. You all will find out soon enough as well. Thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you enjoy my writing.  
  
**Ms Hobgoblin**: Thank you very much! You'll definitely find what Yugi's decision was in this chapter. Enjoy!  
  
**Dragon-Tsuzuku:** I hope it's not too confusing. I've been told that some people have trouble with the doubles, but that'll end pretty soon, so hopefully it'll get a bit better. Thanks for the review!  
  
**Hopefire**: _Tears in Heaven_ is a very sad song. I was looking through my music library to play something while writing the chapter and came across that one. I immediately knew I had to use it. You'll find out what Yugi decides in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it.  
  
**Katie Torango**: The aftermath of Yugi's death was really hard to do, because everyone responded differently to it. I didn't want to risk going overboard, so I kind of held back a bit. I'm glad it worked out.  
  
Thanks for the compliment! I'm glad to be able to get what I'm seeing in my head through words, since I can't do it any other way. I'm glad you enjoyed the changing rooms, too. I thought it would be a good way to show how their personalities had changed.  
  
Good point about Kaiba feeling Yugi's pain. The difference between this time and the time in the dungeon is that Yugi was using the power of the puzzle to keep Ra summoned, and that included Kaiba and Yami's puzzle. Because the power was being used for something else, Kaiba didn't get to use any of it. Not until Yami took control of Ra and defended himself against the priest.  
  
**Mimiheart**: I don't think I'll have to hide after this chapter, which is a good thing, because I was getting hungry :o) NOOOOOOOOOO no diapers, please! I'll do anything. I've babysat enough times to know how bad diapers can be (runs away in terror).  
  
**Aura Black Chan**: The final confrontation with Gozaburo is coming up in a few chapters, I think. The outline is in my head and it sometimes gets jumbled, but I'm pretty sure it'll happen soon. Unless my muse says otherwise, but he's been quiet lately.  
  
**Leland Lancaster**: It's okay to want to beat Yami's face in. You know how he gets: he acts first and asks questions later. It's admirable because of his loyalty, but it could be quite a pain in the butt too.  
  
**Bayleef**: Okay, I won't be sorry I made you cry, and I'm glad that you don't think it's too bad. I always like stories that bring emotions out of me too. Thank you for the kind words, though!  
  
**Lilmatchgirl007**: I liked the philosophical musings... it's a hard choice to make, isn't it? If given the same, I'm not sure which one I'd choose. However, a promise is a promise... Gozaburo will get his dues, be assured of that. As for Kaiba being open... well, that's going to take a while, if it happens at all. You know how he gets all quiet and defensive. I'll take a lot to get him to open up. There's more Bakura in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it.  
  
:o) fanfiction dot net has been removing a lot of stars lately. I can't put them in the story like I used to. I got your meaning, though!!  
  
**SugarHighNeko**: Aww... what you wrote was so sweet! Yugi must have been listening to you...  
  
**Verdragon**: Thanks for the sugar!! In exchange, here's the next chapter. I hope the wait wasn't too long.  
  
**MotherCHOWGoddess**: My muse for this story? That's a funny question, because the way I see my muse, he's a little rat, kind of like Brain, from Pinky and the Brain (how I miss that cartoon!). He sits on top of my desk and glares at the screen when I write. He can be quite vocal when I don't do what he says. He's the same muse I have for everything I write. How stupid is that?   
  
Yup, the color of Yugi's soul room is the same as the shadow realm. It's going to haunt him for a long, long time. Good luck with the posting. It can be awful nerve-wracking when you're doing it for the first time.  
  
**Noone**: I've gotten into a writing streak with this story that I'm updating on average every two weeks. At least you didn't have to suffer through a lot of those cliffhangers while you caught up. I'm glad you're enjoying the fic. I'm having a lot of fun writing it and exploring the characters we've all come to love. Thanks!  
  
**Mira**: Thank you very much for giving this story a try. I'm glad that you enjoyed it, even though you had a lot to read in one sitting. I hope that you continue to enjoy it. Nope, I don't have a site with my YGO stories. I'm very short on time these days so I don't really have time to get one up. They're all just here at   
  
**PyroDragon2006**: What Kaiba and Yugi went through together definitely left a mark on both of them. Of course, Yugi is the one more likely to recognize and acknowledge that, but in some way, Kaiba feels it to. It's going to bring them closer on some basic level, but it's also going to drive them apart, because they each know the worst about the other now.  
  
**Lady Elfskye:** Sorry about the cliffhanger! I've been ending on those more than usual lately. Thanks for giving this story a try as well. I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope that you continue to do so.  
  
**TZ**: It seems that everyone wants Yugi to go back to the land of the living. You'll find out what he does in this chapter. Bakura always makes weird Marik faces... I loved watching the Egyptian Bakura doing them thought, it was cool! I've still not watched 211-214 (I've been obsessing over Inuyasha lately). I can't find 215 this week, because the site I get it from is down, so hopefully it'll be there when they get it back up. Bakura is possessing Tristan in the anime? That wasn't in the manga, was it? I thought it was Bakura vs. Yugi.  
  
**Skyla Doragono**: Oops! (looks down at Skyla on the floor, then looks around to make sure no one is around to point the finger at me for making her faint). Authoress no baka? Sometimes...   
  
**LazerWulf**: Wow, you replied to every chapter! That's so cool. I adore getting new readers, especially when they take the time to tell me what they liked/didn't like after every chapter. Thank you very much for doing that, I really appreciated it.  
  
I'm not sure where Priest Seth came from. I've seen it too and always wondered if I'd missed something. I think it's Seto in the manga, though I'm not sure. It may have been just translated as Seth. I can't read Japanese so I have no clue. In the anime, it is Priest Seto, though. I am very sure of that. I speak a little Japanese, but even if I didn't, the name is pretty clear. Yup, Atemu/Atem is Yami's name. I use Yami because I've been using the English names (when I started writing, all I had seen was the dub) and since there has never been a mention of Yami's last name in the dub, I didn't want to mix the two. I like the Japanese version better, but I wanted to keep some continuity in my stories.  
  
Time Travel is a freaky thing. What I'm messing with, however, has not been substantial enough to mess with the events that are meant to happen. It'll just give a few people a couple more memories. Yuya and Neit are my creations. I don't think that Mokuba and Rebecca have alter egos in Ancient Egypt. Most of the characters don't, despite what some authors write.  
  
The manga is really interesting, though the US Shonen Jump is really behind in publishing it. In Japan, it's already been finished (sniff, sniff). There is a whole season of YGO that is based on those early chapters in the manga. It's quite cool (and very violent).  
  
**Dream Guardian**: No, no death threats!! Remember that if you kill me, you'll never know what happens (hides behind muse, who is responsible for all of this anyway). I'm glad you enjoyed the chapters! I'm really into writing this story, so it's not hard to write a chapter a week. I figure that I might as well keep the momentum going while it's strong.  
  
**Britta**: Thanks! I'm glad you liked the story. It will be finished eventually, but I work on it a little at a time and post a chapter at a time. I wouldn't have the time to sit down and write it all at once, so the way I'm doing it seems easier.  
  
**Ieyre**: Yup, it definitely is sad. It makes me cry a bit sometimes, but it's the way it's got to be for now. Sorry!  
  
**A fan**: Thanks! I'm very glad that you enjoyed the chapter.  
  
**Hobbit13**: The blond girl with the glasses is Rebecca Hawkings (the American duelist) who is obsessed with Yugi, much to Yugi's embarrassment. She's a good girl though. Yami and the pharaoh going at it is very amusing. It almost makes up for everything else that's going on. You're right, the pharaoh has no idea who Yugi is or what the relationship between he and Yami is, but he'll find out eventually. I'm glad you liked the chapter.  
  
**Nenya85**: You're absolutely right about Seto and Gozaburo's relationship. Even though Kaiba suffered a lot, he did put himself in the situation and eventually beat out his adoptive father. I guess we'll have to see who is the better man in this story. Yami is one complicated individual. I just hope I don't get too carried away with him. Thanks!  
  
**Solitaire**: Priest Seto has been very busy healing people, hasn't he? It's too bad he doesn't heal the one that really needs it. That's not entirely his fault though. That scene you mentioned in the anime, after Yami looses Yugi's soul, is the one I was thinking about when I wrote the scene with Yami and Yugi. It is one of the best scenes in the series, since I'd never seen Yami go so out of whack before.  
  
You want me to sell you on No Kinen Ni? Well, let me first explain about Joey and the boxers. No, there is NO Kaiba/Joey romance in the story. Joey had just had a bad dream, woke up, was hungry and got up in just boxers. Kaiba told him to get dressed because he didn't want Mokuba seeing him half naked, but of course, Joey didn't listen.  
  
The story involves Yugi mainly. Yami as well, of course, and I've got a lot of Bakura/Ryou in there too. It's mainly about Yugi having to deal with something that happened to him, while Yami tries to get him to confront it instead of running away from it. It's was my second story, and it's more of an action adventure story than angst. Now that I'm a lot more into Kaiba, I'm trying to write him more as well. I don't really know how to describe it to you. Would I recommend you read it? Sure... what kind of an author would I be if I didn't? It's got a lot of good Yami/Yugi moments, a lot of Yugi/Kaiba moments and some Joey/Kaiba moments (more in the hesitant acquaintance/friend theme than anything else. I'm playing with the whole 'both had an abusive father issue' at the moment). Okay, I guess I said a lot more than I intended. Sorry!  
  
Thanks for the recommendations. I will definitely give your stories a try!  
  
**PyroKittyKat**: Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
**Millenniumgrl126**: Uh, oh... I don't want you coming after me, that's for sure. How about I just say that you'll be feeling a bit differently when you read this chapter? Thanks for the reply!  
  
**Norestar-angel:** Thank you very much!  
  
**SakuraofDarkness**: 3 days, huh? Wow... I thank you for your diligence. The story is about 240 pages long, so I can see why it would have taken that long. I'm very glad that you're enjoying the story, though. I'm sorry for making you cry. I don't have that intention when I write, but it sometimes just ends up that way. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
**GW Katrina**: Thank you very much for your kind words. I'm very glad that you're enjoying the story. Yeah, I do enjoy the cliffhangers. They keep me one edge as much as they do you all. I don't have any of the story written ahead of time, just an outline, so that kind of keeps me on my toes too.  
  
**Black RoseL Me**: Yup, I definitely get your drift! Blame my muse for the cliffhangers, because it's all his fault.  
  
**Lightning Sage**: Sorry about making you cry! I didn't mean to, I promise. I could see how it would get emotional, though. Our guys are going through a lot of stuff lately, and hopefully they'll come out safe on the other side.  
  
**Skippys Cat**: Wow, another reader that read the whole story through! Thanks! I'm glad that you enjoyed this one as well. Hopefully it didn't take you too long to go through it. A break from the trials of life, huh? Yup, that's what it is for me too. You're very welcome, and I appreciate the review.  
  
**Kenotaphion**: Thank you! Emotional breakdowns are always hard to write, because you always run the risk of going to far and coming off as ridiculous. I was a little worried, so I'm glad to hear that Yami's reaction was done well. He's a very complex character to write, because he's so unpredictable. Thank you very much for the compliment! I'm glad that this is one of your favorite stories .  
  
**Meant2Live**: Hey there! Don't worry about it, writing a first fic is always completely nerve-wracking. Best of luck with it, though! Thank you for reading No Kinen Ni as well. I'm glad that you're enjoying that one as well. In Intruders, we should be getting back to the present in the next chapter. That's the plan, at least. Thanks!  
  
**Moonlitspire**: I think the whole story is an emotional wreck. I sometimes feel so drained after writing a chapter, and some even leave me in tears. But I love the story and it's been very rewarding to write it. Thank you very much for reviewing and I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
**Yuki Tsukihana**: I can't help but feel bad for the thief! You don't like Rebecca, huh? I like her, but I doubt I would if she was there all the time. She can get annoying, especially when she calls Yugi 'darling'. But it's worth it just to see the jealous look on Tea's face.  
  
**Shay17757**: My boyfriend is a huge fan of Yu Yu Hakusho, so I thought it was funny that you mentioned it. It's too bad he's not much into fanfiction. I'm glad that you like this story and I hope that you continue to do so!  
  
**Saiyan Jedi**: I'm beginning to think that writing emotional stories is the only thing I can write. I should try a comedy one of these days and see how bad I suck at it. I think you'll be happy with this chapter. Thanks!  
  
**Silver Dragon Golden Dragon**: Stay away from the light? I thought that was very funny. I think you'll like what happens.  
  
**Katkid**: I swear I'm suffering from Jackknife 20 withdrawal already. Are you going to write anything else? Not to be pushy or anything. Anyway, I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. I know that I'm giving everyone a hard time right now, but hopefully it'll be worth it in the end.  
  
**A fan**: Thank you very much! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.  
  
Whew! I fell asleep while replying to reviews last night (Saturday) which is why this chapter is being posted tonight. Not that the reviews were boring or anything, I was just REALLY tired. Thanks again for so many wonderful reviews. Enjoy the chapter.  
  
**WARNING**: Description of Kaiba's injuries. It's not too graphic, but I thought I'd warn you all anyway.

* * *

**Part 23: Troubled Souls**  
  
_"Are you ready to give up yet?"_  
  
Bakura stood in his soul room, which looked like the inside of the many tombs he'd robbed in his life, and heard the taunting voice reverberate through the stone walls. He knew the voice, of course, and he knew the circumstances that had made him ask that question. It wasn't until a few moments ago, however, that the incident had become present in his memories. It had been quite confusing, to all of a sudden remember something that he was sure had not been in his memories before. Once he'd dissected the memory and the circumstances around it, he came to the conclusion that he now knew where the pharaoh, the runt, and the priest had gone.  
  
_"You're not doing much with that god of yours, boy. I was hoping this would be a worthy match, but it looks like I'll be winning very soon."_  
  
He still couldn't believe that the runt had the courage to stand up to him, much less physically attack him and wound him. Bakura clenched his teeth at the remembered pain, but smirked when he remembered how he'd retaliated. It had been so simple, really. Yugi had not been prepared to deal with his beast. Hell, Yugi hadn't even known about his beast, but at the last minute had managed to summon one of the Egyptian gods anyway and bring an abrupt ending to his fun. In the end, Bakura had been defeated by the pharaoh and Yami, but not before inflicting major damage to the runt. He wondered if the run was still alive. Yugi had looked pretty beaten up before the pharaoh and Yami had arrived to save him. If Yugi had perished in Egypt, would his body in this time have died as well? Bakura chuckled. That was an interesting question.  
  
Yami, Yugi and Kaiba's stay in Ancient Egypt had so far not changed history for any of them, but it made Bakura wonder. He supposed that he should exit the ring and tell everyone what he knew, but he wasn't about to admit that he'd fought Yugi and possibly killed him. Yugi's grandfather would not take the news well and Bakura didn't want to have to injure him. Ryou wouldn't take the news well either, and Bakura preferred it when Ryou was happy.  
  
It was a strange feeling, though, to suddenly have memories he hadn't had before, especially when they involved people that he hadn't met until he'd been awakened in this time. He wasn't sure how that would change his existence, but hoped that Yami, Yugi, and Kaiba didn't mess up his past. If they did, he'd have to deal with them when, and if, they came back.  
  
Bakura suddenly found himself outside of the ring, with Mr. Moto, Ryou, and Joey looking at him in confusion.  
  
"Is the runt still breathing?" Bakura asked, turning to where Yugi lay on his own bed.  
  
Mr. Moto's eyes widened. "Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be?"  
  
Just to make sure, the old man walked over to Yugi, put his fingers against Yugi's neck and felt for a pulse.  
  
"Yugi is fine."  
  
Bakura nodded. "Great," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "We wouldn't want anything to happen to him now would we?"  
  
He was about to disappear back into the puzzle, when Ryou's voice stopped him.  
  
"Bakura, is there something you want to tell us? Why were you worried about Yugi?"  
  
Bakura turned to glare at Ryou. "What makes you think I was worried about him? I just wanted to see if he was still breathing."  
  
Ryou rolled his eyes. "Okay, then what would make you come out of the puzzle to see if Yugi was still breathing."  
  
Bakura shrugged. "Idle curiosity, I guess," he replied and disappeared back into the ring.

* * *

Mokuba Kaiba walked back to the Moto's game shop as fast as he could. They'd decided to go back there because they'd run out of places to hide, and since Gozaburo had already found them there once, they doubted he'd think to look there again. He'd gone out to get some things they'd needed and to stop in at Kaiba Corp. to see what more damage Gozaburo had done. The man had already made some deals with a couple of his old military contacts, which made Mokuba's stomach churn. He was now more determined to end this whole thing and get rid of that man once and for all.  
  
He was almost to the game shop when someone pulled him into the alley that bordered the building. A hand was quickly put over his mouth and his arms were pinned to his side, causing him to drop the bags he'd been carrying. Mokuba struggled, but he was lifted off the ground and carried deeper into the alley, towards the back, where a solitary street light illuminated the place. He was thrown into a wall, but he managed to avoid hitting his head and instead used his feet to break the fall, as his brother had taught him.  
  
"You're an annoyance, little Mokuba."  
  
Mokuba froze at the sound of the too familiar voice. He turned to see his brother standing underneath the light, his blue eyes blazing hatred, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.  
  
'That's not my brother,' Mokuba told himself as he looked at the person who had always protected him and cared for him, 'that's a sick imitation of Seto.' Even though he told himself that, he couldn't help but see his brother in front of him, taunting him, wanting to hurt him.  
  
Gozaburo laughed. "What's the matter; you don't like seeing your loving, older brother like this, do you?"  
  
Quicker than Mokuba could react, Gozaburo closed the distance between them and pinned Mokuba to the wall, both hands wrapped around Mokuba's throat. Mokuba had no choice but to look into familiar blue eyes that were looking at him with contempt and hatred, while before they'd only looked at him with love. Mokuba wrapped his hands around Gozaburo arms, trying to pull the hands away, but did not succeed.  
  
"I need you to return access to my company to me," Gozaburo said, leaning close enough that Mokuba could feel the man's breath on his cheeks, could smell his brother's scent, even if it wasn't his brother occupying the body. Gozaburo's hands tightened around Mokuba's throat and Mokuba fought to draw breath. "You don't want to? That's too bad," the man added when Mokuba didn't say anything.  
  
Mokuba's vision was failing him but he fought to retain consciousness. He doubted Gozaburo had caught on to the fact that the locket he wore around his neck was the key he was looking for. If he had, Gozaburo would have taken it long ago.  
  
"I have an idea," Gozaburo suddenly said and slammed Mokuba into the wall he'd been pinned against. "Do you want to know why your brother fears me so much? Do you want to know what I used to do to him?"  
  
Gozaburo's hands had loosened a bit around Mokuba's throat and he shook his head. He knew what Gozaburo had done to Seto. He'd been witness to it many times.  
  
Gozaburo laughed. "I know that you saw Seto's 'lessons' a number of times, Mokuba, but seeing is not the same thing as experiencing. Don't you ever wonder how I was able to mold Seto into exactly what I wanted? Do you ever wonder what it was your brother saved you from? That's right," Gozaburo said when he noticed Mokuba's surprise, "I would have done the same to you, but your brother sacrificed himself for you. He agreed to never tell anyone about what went on between the two of us, what I did to him, and take it without complaint. In exchange, I would never lay a finger on you. Didn't you ever wonder why I always seemed to focus on Seto and ignore you?"  
  
Mokuba felt tendrils of fear curl around his spine. He had wondered why Gozaburo had never abused him many times. He'd asked his brother, but Seto always said that the only reason Gozaburo hit him was to mold him into the perfect heir to Kaiba Corporation. That made sense to Mokuba, because since Mokuba had nothing to do with the company, Gozaburo had no reason to be involved with him. Mokuba never imagined that his brother would have endured the abuse that had been meant for him as well.  
  
Gozaburo's lips pressed against Mokuba's ear and when the man spoke, the words sent chills down Mokuba's spine.  
  
"Your brother isn't here to shield you any more, is he?" Gozaburo asked in Seto's familiar voice. It was an effort for Mokuba to remember that it wasn't his brother hurting him; it was someone else, someone using his body.  
  
Gozaburo let go of Mokuba, and the young Kaiba fell to the ground with a loud cry. Mokuba got on his hands and knees to get to his feet, but a well placed kick knocked him back into the wall. Gozaburo laughed when Mokuba cried out.  
  
"Seto was always so quiet," Gozaburo said. "It was always a game to get him to cry out and it took a lot of effort on my part to make that happen. I'm glad I won't have to work as hard with you."  
  
Gozaburo kicked Mokuba again and Mokuba managed to dodge the full impact of the kick, letting Gozaburo's foot hit the wall instead. He scrambled out of the way and would have made it out of the alley if Gozaburo hadn't tackled him from behind. Mokuba was pinned to the floor and a hand was slapped against his mouth just as he'd been ready to scream for help.  
  
"I don't think so, little one. We're just getting started."

* * *

"What do you think that was all about with Bakura?" Joey asked, looking suspiciously at the ring Ryou wore around his neck.  
  
Ryou looked down at the ring as well, and then shrugged.  
  
He and Joey were sitting in the Moto's living room, while Tea prepared dinner in the kitchen. Mr. Moto had stayed upstairs with Yugi, hoping that he'd wake up soon. Joey was beginning to wonder if Yugi was going to wake up at all, and now that they didn't have the Millennium Puzzle, he wasn't sure about the fate of Kaiba or Yami either.  
  
"I'm not sure, Joey. Bakura never tells me what he's up to and I never know what goes through his mind."  
  
Joey shook his head in disgust. "That was pretty rude, asking about Yugi that way. It shook up Mr. Moto quite a bit."  
  
Ryou nodded and smiled slightly. "Bakura has never been very tactful when it comes to those things. I don't think he cares."  
  
Joey nodded. There was something about the whole exchange that had bothered him from the beginning. He was well aware that most of the time Bakura was a wild card, entirely unpredictable. The way he'd acted when he'd come out of the ring had sparked something in Joey.  
  
"I think he knows something."  
  
Ryou raised an eyebrow in surprise. "What do you mean?"  
  
"The way Bakura asked about Yugi made me think that he knows for sure where Yugi, Yami, and Kaiba's souls have gone."  
  
"What made you think that?" Ryou asked.  
  
"I don't know, it was as if Bakura came out of the ring expecting Yugi to be dead, like he'd seen something or remembered something. I wish he'd stayed out long enough to ask him what he'd really meant."  
  
Ryou considered what Joey had said carefully. Joey was tempted to ask Ryou to try to coax Bakura out of the ring so he could lay into the sprit about what he knew, but didn't want to risk Bakura turning on Ryou and making him pay for Joey's mistake.  
  
"Bakura has always told me that his memories of his life in Egypt are intact, unlike Yami's," Ryou said. "He's never been wiling to share those with me, and I doubt he'd be willing to start now."  
  
"So you think that if he knows something about Yugi it has to do with Ancient Egypt?"  
  
Ryou shrugged. "It's possible. If it were anything else, Bakura would probably tell us, if only to make us worry." Ryou said, smiling slightly  
  
"Don't you think Mokuba is taking too long?" Tea's voice cut through their conversation. She was in the dining room setting the table for dinner. "It's already dark outside and he's on foot."  
  
Joey looked at the clock and frowned. Mokuba had been gone for a few hours already. It was easy to worry, but after being with him at Kaiba Corp. and knowing about some of the stuff Mokuba had to do there, Joey figured it had just taken him a bit longer to get things together. Plus, he'd had to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things. Even with all the rationalizing, and now that Tea had brought the subject up, Joey had been feeling tense and on edge for the last few hours. He'd chalked it up to stress, but it had really been worry for the younger Kaiba.  
  
"He left four hours ago," Ryou said. "He should have been back by now."  
  
Joey agreed. "I think you're right," he said and got up from the chair he'd been sitting on. "I'm going to look for him."  
  
"I'm going with you," Ryou stated and they both left the game shop.  
  
They headed towards Kaiba Corporation, but stopped at the entrance to the alley besides the building. Two grocery store sacks had been dropped, and spilled milk, along with cans of soda and other items, littered the sidewalk.  
  
"Wasn't Mokuba supposed to bring back stuff from the grocery store?" Ryou asked.  
  
The knot in Joey's stomach tightened at the evidence at his feet. His mouth was suddenly dry and he found himself unable to answer Ryou's question. All he managed was a nod before he ran into the alley.  
  
He heard soft sobbing as he approached the trashcan in the back of the alley and could barely make out a huddled form sitting beside it. He approached it carefully so as not to further frighten the boy.  
  
"Mokuba?"  
  
The younger Kaiba seemed startled, but looked up at the sound of Joey's voice. His eyes were wide and full of tears, while the rest of his face was bloodied and bruised. Mokuba always acted tough like his brother, so it was easy, as it was with his brother, to forget how old he really was. Right now, Mokuba looked every bit the eleven year old boy he was.  
  
"What happened?" Ryou asked.  
  
Mokuba opened his mouth to reply, but began to sob instead. He launched himself into Joey's arms where he clung for dear life. Joey patted the boy on the back carefully and smoothed down his hair.  
  
"It's okay, kid, you can tell us when we get back to the game shop."  
  
Mokuba shook his head against Joey's chest. "He took it, Joey, he took the key."  
  
Joey's eyes widened at the statement, not sure what the kid meant. "What do you mean, Mokuba?"  
  
Mokuba sobbed harder. "I couldn't stop him, I couldn't help it. I had to tell him."  
  
Joey rubbed Mokuba's back, even more confused now at what the kid was saying. Could he have gotten a concussion?  
  
"What did you have to tell him, Mokuba?" Ryou asked. "What key did you give him?"  
  
Mokuba huddled further into Joey's chest and resumed his sobbing. Joey pulled Mokuba away from him for a moment and gasped when he noticed the locket gone from around Mokuba's neck.  
  
"The key," Joey whispered, remembering the metallic chip at the back of his own pendant. "You gave him control of the company, didn't you?"  
  
Mokuba nodded. "I didn't have a choice. He would have killed me if I hadn't."  
  
Joey pulled Mokuba close to him again. "It's okay, kid, we'll work it out."

* * *

_"You don't have to do this alone, Kaiba. Whatever you're going through, you don't have to feel it alone."  
_  
He had said that to Kaiba, hadn't he? He'd offered his help, his understanding and it pained Yugi that he wanted to back out of it now. He didn't want to go back to the pain, the uncertainty. He didn't want to fight Bakura; he didn't want to fight anyone, really. All he wanted was to go back home. In this place, he felt like he was already home. He was with his parents, he was safe and loved. He deserved that, didn't he?  
  
Yugi's hand, which had almost touched his father's, dropped to his side.  
  
"I promised Kaiba I'd help him," Yugi said.  
  
His body began to ache. His right side more than the left and he remembered that he'd fallen. His breathing became more difficult, as if his lungs were filled with water. The pain was so intense that he wanted to close his eyes and make it all stop. He had done that, he now realized, which is how he'd ended up here, with his parents. He wasn't ready to stay, however. He had two promises to keep.  
  
"I promised Yami I'd stand with him until he could move on to the afterlife," Yugi whispered, sobbing. "I want to stay here with you, but I can't. I have to go."  
  
The pain was unbearable. His body was being bumped, but nothing around Yugi seemed to be moving. He wanted to curl in on himself, but couldn't move his right arm or right leg.  
  
"You are a strong young man," Yugi's mother said, smiling as tears slid down her face. "Your loyalty to your friends is commendable. Know that we will be here to meet you when it is your time to come and stay."  
  
Yugi's father touched Yugi's cheek, wiping away the tears that were still falling. "We love you, son, never forget that. Now go, fulfill your destiny."  
  
Everything went blank. Yugi found himself floating in a void, but it felt as if he were attached to something and was being pulled back down. He struggled, but realized he wasn't going to be able to get away. He stopped struggling and went limp. There was a bright flash, and then he was assaulted by unbearable pain. His body was being moved from side to side, softly, but each movement brought agony to him. He tried to open his eyes, but they wouldn't budge. Instead, he groaned, hoping that whoever was moving him would stop.  
  
"Yugi?"  
  
It took a while for Yugi to remember the voice, but he smiled inwardly when he recognized Yami. The spirit was worried about something, and Yugi wondered what had happened. He struggled to open his eyes and finally managed to, only to find Yami and High Priest Seto staring down at him in surprise and awe. Yugi groaned again and tears began to roll down the side of his face.  
  
"It hurts," Yugi whispered, grimacing when speaking brought only more pain. What had happened to him? Why was he hurt?  
  
"Do something, priest," Yami said to Seto. "He's alive now, so you can do something, right?"  
  
'He's alive now?' Yugi repeated in his mind. Had there been a time when he hadn't been alive?  
  
"Yes, of course," the priest said, bringing the Millennium Rod up above Yugi. "Yugi, it is going to hurt while your body mends itself, but the pain will go away shortly."  
  
Yugi didn't reply. What could he say, really? He just wanted the pain to stop.  
  
The priest took Yugi's silence as approval and began to chant something. The Millennium Rod glowed and Yugi felt a searing, ripping pain engulf him. He screamed, his hands clenching around the fabric he was lying on. He felt Yami's hand clench around his own and Yugi gripped it as a drowning man would grip a life preserver. He closed his eyes and tried to take his mind off the pain, but the more he tried to, the more he hurt.  
  
After what seemed like eternity, warmth engulfed him. The pain was gone and all he felt was soothing calmness. Experimentally, he moved his limbs and smiled when it didn't hurt. He took a deep breath and glanced at the priest, who looked a little pale.  
  
"Yugi's injuries were extensive, Yami," the priest said. "They are all gone now."  
  
Before Yugi could say anything, Yami reached down and wrapped both arms around him, pulling Yugi up to his chest. Yami held him for a while, not saying a word. Yugi hugged the spirit of the puzzle back, slightly confused at the reaction.  
  
"Yugi, I thought we'd lost you."  
  
Yugi disentangled himself from Yami's grasp and wiped the tears off his cheeks. He frowned. "What happened, Yami? Why was I injured? Did I die?"  
  
Yami's eyes narrowed as he held Yugi at arm's length. "You do not remember, Yugi?"  
  
Yugi thought about it for a moment, and the events with Bakura suddenly came crashing down on him. "Bakura, right? What happened to him?"  
  
Yami smirked. "The pharaoh and I defeated him."  
  
Yugi smiled at Yami's look of pride. He was glad that Bakura had been taken care of, but also noticed that Yami had not answered his second question.  
  
"Was I dead?"  
  
Yami looked past Yugi to the priest, then back. "Yes, Yugi, you were dead."  
  
Yugi's heart sped up at the admission. He didn't remember being dead. He remembered wanting the pain to end, taking to Kaiba and saying goodbye to him, and then he was here.  
  
"How long?" Yugi asked.  
  
"A few hours, Yugi. That does not matter now, because you're safe."  
  
Yami hugged Yugi again, and Yugi took the opportunity to look around the carriage and notice that two important people were missing.  
  
"Where are the pharaoh and Kaiba?" Yugi asked. He especially wanted to find Kaiba to see how he was doing.  
  
Yami looked away, his eyes unreadable, so Yugi turned to the priest.  
  
"They're in the second carriage. The pharaoh thought it would be a good idea for Yami and Kaiba to take different carriages."  
  
"Why?" Yugi asked, turning back to Yami. He didn't have to wait long for an answer to pop into his head, and the thought made him slightly angry. "You blamed him for what happened to me, didn't you? Why?"  
  
Yami's face was set in anger, but Yugi could tell that the anger was not directed at him. "He let you be taken by Bakura, Yugi, which is why what happened to you is his fault."  
  
Yugi shook his head. "Kaiba didn't let me get taken, Yami. He tried to help me. He couldn't do much because..." Yugi trailed off, aware that he'd almost blurted out Kaiba's secret. He closed his eyes, imagining the confrontation Yami and Kaiba must have had. He couldn't imagine what Kaiba was thinking now.  
  
"Why couldn't he help you?" Yami asked, not missing the almost confession.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "It's not important, just know that Kaiba did not just stand there and watch Bakura take me."  
  
Yami scoffed. "What did he do, then? Am I to believe that Kaiba, as well trained as a fighter as he is, couldn't defeat one lonely thief on a horse?"  
  
Yugi's anger grew with each passing sentence. Why couldn't Yami be a little more understanding? Why did he always have to jump to conclusions, especially when it had to do with Kaiba?  
  
"I want to talk to Kaiba," Yugi told the priest, ignoring Yami for the moment.  
  
"They're in the other carriage," Seto pointed out.  
  
"I know that, so I want you to stop the carriage so I can go chase the other one and talk to Kaiba."  
  
"You are to do no such thing," Yami said.  
  
Yugi turned to him, annoyed at Yami's attitude. "Why not?"  
  
"You're still recuperating, Yugi," was Yami's excuse.  
  
"I feel great," Yugi said and it was true. He could still remember the pain, but he didn't feel it any more. He felt as if he'd just woken up from a very long and very comfortable nap. He turned to the priest. "Stop the carriage."  
  
The priest talked to the driver, and Yugi jumped out before the horses had even stopped moving. He ran through the thick sand to the other carriage and yelled at the driver to stop. The pharaoh stuck his head out of the covered carriage when the driver called to him, and ordered the carriage stopped as soon as he saw Yugi.  
  
"Yugi!" the pharaoh yelled as Yugi climbed onto the carriage. "You are well."  
  
"The priest healed me," Yugi said as he dashed past the pharaoh towards the back, where Kaiba sat.  
  
Kaiba's head was turned away and he hadn't yet reacted to Yugi's presence, which led Yugi to believe that the teenager was sleeping. A slight twitching of muscles confirmed it as Yugi walked around and saw that Kaiba's eyes were closed. His face was still bruised and bloody and Yugi wondered why Kaiba hadn't been healed yet. Kaiba's face contorted for a moment, and his breathed out a soft 'no'. Yugi was afraid of Kaiba's reaction if he were to touch him, so he settled for calling instead.  
  
"Kaiba, wake up, I want to talk to you."  
  
Kaiba stirred immediately and his eyes snapped open. He looked at Yugi as if he were seeing a ghost, blinking several times to clear his vision.  
  
"You're not imagining things, Kaiba, I'm really here. Yami told me I died, but I'm okay now."  
  
Kaiba sat up, and Yugi could see the effort it cost him to do just that. The pharaoh had left to talk to the priest in the other carriage and the driver was too far away to hear them. Yugi sat in front of Kaiba, his hands in his lap.  
  
"Why haven't you let the priest heal you, Kaiba? You don't have to keep feeling the pain."  
  
Kaiba's eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot. He studied Yugi carefully, and a small smile crossed his lips, before disappearing as if it had never been there. Kaiba reached out and ran his hand over Yugi's cheek, as if making sure that he was real.  
  
"I'm glad you're safe, Yugi," Kaiba said. "Yami did not take your death well."  
  
Yugi's face fell. "I know, he told me that he blamed you. I'm sorry about that, Kaiba. Why didn't you defend yourself? What happened with Bakura wasn't your fault."  
  
Kaiba shrugged and looked away. "It doesn't matter whose fault it was, Yugi, what happened already happened. The only thing we can do now is deal with the aftermath."  
  
Yugi sighed, his eyes filling with tears. How could he make Kaiba understand that he wasn't alone? How could he help? Kaiba gave him another ghost of a smile before he turned away and rested his head on his knees again. Yugi sighed again and felt the tears falling down his cheeks. Why had this happened? When would it be over?  
  
If Kaiba wouldn't talk to him, then Yugi would settle for being with him, even if it was just physically. Maybe if Yugi did it enough, Kaiba would realize that he could trust him and would talk to him. Yugi settled down next to Kaiba and made himself comfortable. He had a feeling it was going to be a long ride to the palace.

* * *

**(AN: Read the warning at the top of the page if you haven't already!)**  
  
Kaiba stepped out of the carriage with effort. The time spent sitting down had relaxed his body to the point that it became hard to stay on his feet. He felt dizzy, weak, and very tired. They had finally reached the palace, and he'd slept most of the way back. Well, he'd passed out, which wasn't the same thing as sleeping. He was tempted to curl up anywhere he could find and sleep in hopes that his lethargy would lessen, but didn't want to let anyone else know how bad he felt.  
  
'Blood loss, you idiot,' a voice in his head said. 'You're suffering from blood loss.'  
  
The voice sounded exactly like Gozaburo's, which Kaiba had long since come to recognize as the part of him that had believed everything Gozaburo had ever said about him. He usually kept that part of himself locked up tight, but right now, he could care less. Kaiba was so desperate to escape the horror that Ancient Egypt had become for him that ever hearing Gozaburo's voice felt better.  
  
He stumbled a little and was surprised when a small arm wrapped itself around his waist. Kaiba would have pushed the person away if he hadn't been shocked by the appearance of the boy who held him. Without thinking, Kaiba bent and wrapped his arms around the boy, not failing to notice when the boy's body tensed and when he gasped in surprise. Feeling foolish for his momentary lapse, Kaiba let go of the boy and held him at arm's length.  
  
"Mokuba?"  
  
The boy looked up at him, grey eyes wide in confusion and fear. He looked at Kaiba as if waiting for Kaiba to explode and yell at him for some perceived wrong. He suddenly recognized the boy. He'd seen the boy and another little girl with Yami earlier. In his haze, he'd let his mind go back to his time and for a moment think that he was standing next to his brother, not some stranger who looked as if Kaiba was about to strike him dead.  
  
"I am sorry, High Priest," the boy said, stepping away from Kaiba's grasp and bowing low to the ground in respect. "I am Yuya. I don't know who 'Mokuba' is."  
  
The voice was the same as Mokuba's as well, which only made Kaiba long for home all the more. His left hand went to the locket around his neck and he popped it open, displaying the picture of a much younger Mokuba he'd kept there for many years. Kaiba felt a pang of loss at the thought of his brother. At the same time, worry hit him like a bullet. While he, Yami, and Yugi had been experiencing life in Egypt, Mokuba had been left behind to deal with Gozaburo on his own. Anything could have happened to Mokuba, and Kaiba shivered at the thought of Gozaburo laying even one hand on his brother.  
  
"I'm not the High Priest," Kaiba said to the boy, snapping himself out of his musings. He touched the boy's head and Yuya lifted it to look at him.  
  
"I know," Yuya said. "You're his double, but I don't know what else to call you."  
  
Kaiba smiled slightly at the boy's reasoning. Smart, just like Mokuba.  
  
"You can call me Kaiba. Everyone else does."  
  
Yuya nodded. "Thank you, Kaiba. Can I take you somewhere, to your double's room maybe? You look like you're going to pass out and it wouldn't be good for you to do that out here in the hot sun."  
  
Kaiba's jaw tightened. Was he that transparent to everyone? Could everyone take one look at him and see him for the weakling he was? He shook his head slowly and took a deep breath, attempting to stand without wobbling. He managed just fine, and inwardly smiled at the small victory.  
  
"I'm fine, Yuya. There is nothing to worry about. What are you doing here? Didn't the pharaoh and Yami take you home?  
  
If Yuya was offended by Kaiba's sudden coldness, he didn't show it. "Yes, they did, but there have been a lot of people killed in the village recently. From what we've seen, it's some of the weaker bandits that have wondered back into the village. There was one group that used to keep them all in line, but they seem to have disappeared. I thought the pharaoh should know about what was going on."  
  
Kaiba felt chills run down his spine at the boy's words. He knew what bandit group Yuya was talking about. Unfortunately, he knew them too well.  
  
"Kaiba, are you okay?"  
  
Kaiba nodded and pointed to the carriage behind him, where the pharaoh was just getting out.  
  
"There is the pharaoh, Yuya. You should talk to him about all of this."  
  
Yuya beamed at him and bowed deeply. "Thank you very much, Kaiba. I hope that you get well soon."  
  
Kaiba watched him go. Whatever peace he'd gotten at seeing his brother, even if it wasn't really his brother, had disappeared at the mention of the bandits. He had been able to avoid thinking about that for a while, but now that the proverbial box had been opened again, he doubted he'd be able to close it for a while.  
  
"You need to get cleaned up."  
  
The statement startled him and Kaiba turned around to find High Priest Seto starting at him.  
  
"What do you mean?" Kaiba asked, his tone slightly defensive.  
  
"You're dirty and could probably use a change of clothes. The desert is a dusty and dirty place, you know. Your white coat doesn't look white anymore."  
  
'Dirty.'  
  
Kaiba replayed that word over and over in his head as he stared at the priest. Yes, he was dirty, but no amount of soap and water would take that away. Reflexively, Kaiba tightened the coat around him. It was the middle of the day, but he suddenly felt cold.  
  
"Come with me, I'll show you to a room where you can bathe. The pharaoh is taking Yugi to a similar place so he can also get cleaned up," the priest added, pointing to where Yugi, Yami, and the pharaoh were walking into the palace with Yuya in tow.  
  
Kaiba considered the offer. Although he knew it wouldn't help, a bath did sound like a good idea. If anything, he could get rid of the physical reminders of what had happened to him. He nodded and followed the priest as he led the way. They didn't speak as they walked through the palace, even though Kaiba kept getting astonished and some worried looks as they passed. Kaiba ignored everything and concentrated only on putting one foot in front of the other. He didn't have time to worry about everyone else, not when he felt ready to collapse at any moment.  
  
The priest led him to a spacious room and then through silk curtains hanging on one wall into a bathing room. The room was wide and spacious. One end of it opened up onto a wide balcony, which let in plenty of natural light. A wide tub dominated the room, as did rich plants of many varieties. The priest led him to the tub and went about gathering different things from a cabinet on the opposite wall. He brought a small bucket with what appeared to be soaps and oils and set it on top of the small, wooden table beside the tub.  
  
"These are my private rooms," the priest said, "so you can be assured that no one will bother you while you are here."  
  
The priest left the room and came back a few moments later, carrying a bundle of cloth.  
  
"Here are some clothes you can change into, if you wish. They are mine, so they should fit you," the priest added, smiling slightly as he set the clothing down on a stone bench in the middle of the room. "Is there anything else you need?"  
  
Kaiba shook his head.  
  
"If something does come up, have the servant standing outside of the main room call for me. He'll know where to find me."  
  
The priest left the bathing room quickly, and Kaiba heard the doors to the outer room shut as well, leaving him along in the priest's quarters. He stood where he was for a moment, before putting his hand in the tub. The water was warm and inviting. The thought of soaking in the tub was appealing, but it would leave too much evidence. Unlike the tubs in his time, this one did not have a drain. It had to be drained manually, and he didn't know how to do it himself, which meant that someone else would have to do it. There was no way he was getting inside it.  
  
Instead, he walked to the bucket. There was a small basin on the ground a few feet away from the tub. Kaiba figured that this was where water that spilled out of the tub was collected for drainage later. It wasn't ideal, but it would have to do. He dipped the bucket in the tub and brought it out full of the warm water. There was a washcloth hanging over the side of the tub and he picked it up as well. He brought both items back to the basin and hesitated. He didn't want to take off his clothes, because he didn't want to see the evidence of what happened at the bandit's camp. He knew he had to, but his hands paused on the top of the coat, unwilling to take it off. He stood there for a while, shaking slightly, until he willed his hands to unzip the coat. Once that was done, he peeled it off quickly before he changed his mind, and looked at his chest and stomach.  
  
The wound from the knife that had torn his shirt off was red and slightly puffy. Finger shaped bruises littered the rest of his chest down to his waist. His hands slid down to the waistband of his slacks, which were being held only by the belt Yugi had let him borrow that night. The belt was small for him, but it barely clasped and held the material on his hips. With a sigh, Kaiba undid the belt and let the pants drop to the ground. He gasped at what he saw, even though he'd expected to see it.  
  
His hips and lower abdomen were completely bruised. There were also cuts that had probably been made by a knife and some others that looked like they had been made by fingernails. The worst part was his legs. Even though the rain had washed some of it off, they were still covered with dried blood, among other things. As he watched, two trickles of fresh blood slid down each of his legs and disappeared into the fabric of the slacks that were pooled around his feet. Kaiba took a breath, and it turned into a soft sob.  
  
His vision began to waver, and he realized that his eyes were full of tears. He fought the urge to throw up and instead reached for the washcloth. He dipped the cloth in the bucket and began to clean himself, slowly at first, then faster as the need to get everything off of him grew. By the time he'd gotten everything off of his body, the water in the bucket, as well as the cloth in his hand, were red.  
  
Kaiba dumped the bloody water into the basin and refilled the bucket. He reached for the washcloth again but shuddered at the sight of it and threw it into the basin. He dipped his hands into the bucket and splashed his face, rubbing at it to get the blood, dirt, and tears off of it. He did the same to his arms and chest, scrubbing fiercely with his bare hands until he was gasping for air. When he leaned down to catch his breath, he saw fresh blood running down his legs.  
  
He took a deep breath, seeing the futility of what he was doing. It didn't matter how much he scrubbed or how much water he used, because the feeling of being dirty, of having been used, was not going to go away. It was not going to wash down the drain like the bloody water eventually would.  
  
Suddenly finding himself without strength, Kaiba fell to his knees. He hissed in pain and wrapped his arms around his stomach as if his arms alone could contain the despair, hopelessness and sadness that wanted to explode from him. He bent his head and finally gave in to the sobs that had wanted to escape him since the day he'd been attacked. He sobbed softly, having enough experience in keeping his emotions quiet so as not to let anyone else know he was in pain, and let his tears fall into the basin to mix in with the bloody water.  
  
If no one was around to see him cry, had he really done it?

* * *


	24. Return

Greetings! I'm so sorry for the delay in posting this... wow, a little over a month; I think that's a record. My life has gone crazy ever since I started school, and I've given up sleeping for the good of my career. Because of all I have going on, it's very hard to find time to write, but I'll try to get something out every few weeks. It just won't be as fast as I was doing it over the summer.

Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I'm very grateful to all of you for taking the time to review and for sticking with the story. I hope that you continue to do so.

Okay, I'll shut up now and let you get on with the reading. I'll do my typical replies to reviews in the next chapter.

Ja!

**Part 24: Return**

Yami made his way through the palace in search of High Priest Seto's quarters. He knew he wouldn't find the high priest there, because the man had left the palace with the pharaoh some time ago to take care of an emergency in the village. Kaiba, however, would have undoubtedly been taken to the high priest's rooms after arriving at the palace, and that was the person Yami wanted to talk to. He'd left Yugi asleep on the pharaoh's bed with two of the palace guards watching over him. He didn't plan on taking long with Kaiba, but he wanted Yugi protected while he wasn't there to do it himself. He would not have a repeat of what happened when they'd ventured out into the village

He hadn't had the chance to ask the high priest where his quarters were, so he'd spent the last half hour roaming around the palace. Yami would stop every now and then to admire the palace and the people that moved around in it. He took it all in, storing it in his mind for later review, because he knew that it would be a long time before he could recall his past life on his own. A part of him wanted to stay in Egypt a bit longer and explore what had once been his kingdom. These feelings brought him guilt, however, because Yugi and Kaiba did not belong in this time. They had already been hurt because of it, and Yami was well aware that his only responsibility right now was to get them home as soon as possible.

Finally, after more searching, and talking to two servants who had immediately dropped to the floor in a respectful bow when he'd approached them, he was told where he could find what he was looking for. He made his way up the long flight of stairs and let his mind wander to what had been on his mind since observing Yugi in the bathing room of the pharaoh's quarters.

There was something about Yugi's behavior that told Yami there was something bothering the young man. Yugi acted like everything was okay, like he was back to the way he had been before all of this had started. He was positive, kind, and downright cheerful, but Yami could see something in his eyes, a darkness that hadn't been there before, that invalidated Yugi's attitude and made it fake, forced. Something was bothering Yugi, and it hurt Yami deeply that the young man didn't want to confide in him.

The more Yami though about Yugi, the more he realized that Kaiba was acting much the same way. He was rough and cold on the outside, pretending that nothing could touch him and that he didn't give a damn about anyone else but himself, but his eyes said something different. Yami felt ashamed that he hadn't taken the time to sort out the signals he'd gotten from Kaiba before now, but when he had, Yami realized that unlike the darkness in Yugi's eyes, Kaiba's had been vulnerable with a deep sadness that contradicted the cold, uncaring exterior.

When he finally reached the priest's quarters, he came face to face with the palace guard the priest had no doubt left there for Kaiba's safety. The man bowed and didn't question Yami's desire to enter. Once inside, Yami made his way to the bed, but found it empty. Frowning, Yami looked around the room but there was no sign of Kaiba. He went out to the balcony but found it empty as well. As he was about to reenter the room, he noticed another room and entered it through the balcony. It was in that room, the bathing room, that Yami found Kaiba.

Kaiba was sitting in the middle of the room, asleep with his head resting on a stone bench. He was wearing one of the priest's robes, which covered him completely from shoulders to toes. Yami took several steps into the room and stopped beside Kaiba's trench coat, which was lying on the floor a few feet away from the bench. It was dirty, ripped, and smeared with blood, but Yami was drawn to it regardless. He picked it up, for the first time noting just how much blood was on it. The outside of it wasn't the only thing smeared with blood. Yami turned it inside out and noticed, even through the burgundy lining of the coat, that the back of it was also saturated with it. Yami ran his hand over the back of the coat and shuddered when his hand came away wet with blood.

'What happened to you, Kaiba?' Yami asked silently. 'What did they do to you?'

He walked to Kaiba, the coat still held tightly in his hand. Kaiba's face was covered by his hair, so he wouldn't be able to see Yami unless Yami made his presence known. Yami put his hand on Kaiba's shoulder and shook it gently, wanting to slowly raise Kaiba out of his slumber. Kaiba's head immediately snapped up to look at Yami, his eyes wild, fear and desperation clearly evident in the blue orbs. Kaiba's hands had come up as well in preparation to defend himself if necessary. Yami backed up a step, not wanting to threaten Kaiba any further with his proximity. His eyes narrowed as Kaiba struggled to suppress whatever he was feeling and watched in fascination as Kaiba's face quickly became a mask of cold detachment. Kaiba's fists dropped to his lap and he glared at Yami.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kaiba asked, his voice soft, but deadly.

Yami was speechless for a moment, unable to get Kaiba's reaction to being woken up out of his mind. He remembered Yugi's declaration that Kaiba had been unable, not unwilling, to help against Bakura, and once again wondered just what had happened to them out in the desert.

"I wanted to talk to you Kaiba," Yami finally said. He kept his distance from Kaiba, whose body was taut as a piano wire, ready to strike at any and all threats.

"I have nothing to say to you," Kaiba stated.

Kaiba got to his feet, the movement quick and graceful, but not before Yami saw Kaiba grimace at the pain the movement caused him. Yami also noticed that even though Kaiba was wearing the priest's robe, he was still wearing his black slacks underneath it. He had also decided to forgo the sandals the priest had left for him and wear his black shoes instead. Kaiba turned to Yami once again and his eyes widened when he saw the inside out trench coat in Yami's hand.

"What are you doing with that?"

Yami looked down at his hands and shrugged. "It was on the floor. I picked it up. Would you mind telling me where all the blood on it came from?"

Kaiba grinned, but it was a malicious, self derogatory motion that made Yami even more intrigued.

"Where does blood usually come from Yami? Don't tell me your memories are so lacking that you can't remember a simple thing like that?"

Yami clutched the garment a bit tighter, sensing Kaiba's defensiveness. If he didn't know any better, Yami would have thought that it scared Kaiba that he was holding onto the coat.

"The blood is on the inside," Yami said slowly. "The outside of it isn't bloodied in the same spot. I just want to know what happened to you, Kaiba. How did the bandits hurt you?"

For a moment, Kaiba's mask slipped and Yami saw Kaiba for what he was: an exhausted, frightened, confused, angry, and desperate young man. His mouth opened and closed as he organized his thoughts, and it occurred to Yami that he'd never seen Kaiba speechless before.

"I..." Kaiba trailed off, his voice almost inaudible.

Kaiba shook his head and the mask slipped back into place. When he looked back at Yami, Kaiba's face was once again a cold, emotionless mask. Kaiba's lips twisted into a sneer and he laughed.

"Why do you care?" Kaiba asked, still laughing. The sound sent shivers down Yami's spine, but only because he knew Kaiba was using it to cover whatever it was that was frightening him. "Didn't you say that I disgusted you and deserved to be left alone? You're breaking your own edict by being here, aren't you?"

The venom with which the words were said cut Yami to the core and a wave of guilt rushed through him as his own words were thrown in his face.

"I was worried about Yugi and mad at you for not telling me what had happened, Kaiba. I said those words rashly. I didn't mean them," Yami said. "We need to talk, Kaiba."

The words felt alien to him, because he wasn't used to explaining himself to anyone, but he was compelled to tell Kaiba that he hadn't meant those words. He needed Kaiba to believe him, needed Kaiba to know that he could trust him.

"Such pretty words don't suit you, Yami. I don't care about what you want. I don't owe you anything, and as soon as we get back home and I get my body back, I'll be happy to never see you again."

Yami's heart clenched a little at the venom in Kaiba's words. It hurt him to hear Kaiba's willingness to never see him again, but if that's what the man wanted, Yami couldn't force him to do anything else. He felt helpless. He'd seen what was behind Kaiba's mask, knew that Kaiba desperately needed help, but if Kaiba was unwilling to receive the help Yami was willing to give, what else could he do?

"If that's what you want, then that's what we'll do. Until then, Kaiba, we have to work together. I'm worried about Yugi and since he won't tell me what happened to him, I was hoping that you would."

Kaiba's lips twisted into a sick semblance of a smile. He gave Yami another one of his glares, before he shrugged and headed out of the bathing room and into the main room.

"If Yugi wants to tell you about what happened, then he will. I have nothing to say."

Yami stood and watched Kaiba leave the room, shaking in frustration. Kaiba was the most irritating individual Yami had ever dealt with. He was not used to being dismissed and he was not going to allow Kaiba to do it. Yami fisted his hands and followed Kaiba, who had made it to the priest's bed. He took a hold of Kaiba's arm and turned him around. He was surprised when Kaiba's fist connected with the side of his face and sent him flying into the nearest wall. He hadn't seen the blow coming and he landed on the floor, dazed and confused, his face throbbing.

"Don't touch me," Kaiba growled. "I have nothing to say to you, I don't want to talk to you, so leave me alone."

He turned around and walked towards the outer door. He was almost there when suddenly Kaiba stopped and began to sway. He reached out for something to use to steady himself, and when he found nothing, slumped to the ground, groaning softly and holding his head. Yami got up and went to Kaiba, putting his hand on the man's back.

"What's wrong, Kaiba? Tell me what's wrong."

Kaiba's face was lined with pain and fatigue and his lips were pressed into a thin line. He weakly pushed Yami away.

"Don't touch me," he whispered.

He tried to push Yami away again, but the strength left him and he slumped forward, unconscious. Yami quickly caught him before he hit the floor, amazed at the sudden turn of events. He turned Kaiba over so that his head was resting on Yami's lap and gasped at the paleness of his face, the darkness under his eyes. How had he missed this before? Was Kaiba so good at pretending that everything was okay that he'd managed to fool himself as well as everyone else?

Before he could do anything else, the door to the priest's quarters opened and Yugi walked in, clutching the book of spells tightly in his arms. He looked at Yami, then down at Kaiba, before entering the room and kneeling beside them. He set the book on the floor in front of Yami and grasped one of Kaiba's hands.

"What happened to him, Yugi?" Yami asked. He'd dropped the trench coat when Kaiba had hit him, so he now pointed over to where it was lying on the floor a few feet away. "That coat is full of blood. What happened to him?"

Yugi looked over to the coat, down at Kaiba, and then finally up at Yami, his face eerily blank and expressionless. That fact made Yami catch his breath, because Yugi's face was never expressionless.

"You know what happened to him, don't you? I can see it in your eyes, Yugi. Why won't you tell me?"

Yugi clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, refusing to look at Yami. He slowly shook his head. After a few moments, his eyes opened again, and they were so full of misery that it made Yami's eyes fill with tears.

"It's time to go home, Yami," was all Yugi said.

* * *

High Priest Seto hurried to the dungeon, not bothering to attend the strategy meeting the pharaoh had set up with all of the priests to discuss the renewed bandit attacks on the village. He had been with the pharaoh when they'd seen first hand the damage done by the latest attack. Yuya had done well to come to the palace and inform them, which had earned the boy safety for him and his family. They had been moved to the palace and offered positions among the staff. Yuya's mother had been delighted, as had his father. The pharaoh had now made it his mission to stop the bandits once and for all, which Seto found amusing. As long as there were different social positions, there would be poverty, and therefore, there would be theft.

It was usually Hori and his men that raided the village, but that hadn't been the case in the latest raid. Witnesses had been very detailed in their description of the bandits, which had led Seto to believe that something had happened to Hori and his men. The other bandits had always stayed away from them, which included respecting their territory. The only way other bandits would begin attacking the village was if they knew Hori and his men would not retaliate against then. When his business was concluded in the dungeon, Seto had every intention of interrogating Kaiba about just how he and Yugi had escaped from Hori and what had happened to the man in the process. First, however, he had a treacherous apprentice to deal with.

Kha occupied a cell in the middle of the dungeon, a cell fortified for retaining magic users. He'd designed the cell himself, as well as performed the appropriate spells to ensure that no spell caster held within could use magic to escape. As he approached, he felt energy and magic ripple over his skin and caress his hair and face. Kha was attempting to cast a spell to remove the spells already in place. It was a clumsy and desperate effort and Seto couldn't help but laugh out loud at the pathetic display.

"You should know better than to cast a spell from within that cell," High Priest Seto said, his tone condescending. "There isn't a spell caster strong enough to defeat the magic binding you."

The man turned, surprise evident on his face as he saw his visitor. The magic flared for a moment, before dying out. Kha, defeated, turned his back to Priest Seto, refusing to acknowledge his presence.

"Is that all you're going to do, sulk?" Seto asked.

Kha remained quiet for a long moment, before sighing. His shoulders slumped momentarily, but then the man straightened and turned to face the high priest.

"What are you going to do with me?" Kha asked.

Seto raised an eyebrow, amused. "You should already know what we do to apprentices who take their teachings and turn them against their masters."

Kha's face darkened and he walked to the door of the cell, glaring at the high priest. "You have no right to refuse me the use of a Millennium Item, Seto," Kha said and gestured towards the Millennium Rod in Seto's right hand. "I can control the items, wield them and make them do what I wish. I can be useful to you, Seto, if only you would let me serve you."

Seto's lips twisted into a sneer. He stepped a bit closer to the cell door so that the bars on the door were the only things separating him and Kha. He stared the other man down and the sneer deepened when fear flittered across Kha's eyes.

"There is a reason why the Millennium Items are given only to a chosen few," Seto said, his voice low, almost a growl. "You are well aware of what that reason is. The magic contained within is powerful and not meant for those that are easily swayed and manipulated, or those with a thirst for power. You have always desired power and control, Kha. I could see it from the moment I met you. You come from a long family of magic users, and it's a shame that you were the only one to be so blinded by desire and greed that you forsook all of your teachings and your family loyalty." Seto paused and brought the Millennium Rod up so that it was between his and Kha's faces. "Your mind is weak, Kha. I chose to keep you as an apprentice because Priest Akunadin asked me to. I never questioned his motives, but now I am beginning to wonder why he wanted you to be by my side."

Seto paused and paced the length of the cell, never taking his eyes off Kha. "You proved your selfishness when you attacked me and my guards and stole the Millennium Rod from me," Seto said, his voice dropping even lower to almost a whisper. He trailed a finger lovingly over the contours of the Millennium Rod as he paced, watching out of the corner of his eye as Kha followed his finger's every move.

"Death is too swift of a punishment for this transgression," Seto finally said.

Kha's eyes widened, but that was the only sign of fear visible on the older man. "You are nothing but a spoiled child, Seto," Kha said, the fear turning to defiance and disdain. "You were always Akunadin's favorite, which always made me wonder why you were so special to him. Tell me, Seto, do you perform 'favors' for the old man in bed?"

Rage swept up Seto's spine at the implication. He turned and unleashed a burst of power from the rod, which sent Kha crashing into the back of the cell.

"Don't disrespect Priest Akunadin," Seto said through clenched teeth. "You can think of me however you like, but give him the respect he deserves."

Seto couldn't really understand his defensiveness when it came to the older priest. They didn't always get along, but Akunadin was one of the few people in his life that Seto respected. As far as he remembered, Akunadin had always been by his side, teaching him and guiding him. The man was like a father to him and Seto would not allow Kha to dishonor him.

"I should kill you where you stand for that, but as I stated earlier, death is too good of a punishment for you."

Kha got to his feet. "What will you do to me?"

Seto shrugged and came to a stop in front of Kha once again. "Since you were so interested in Millennium magic, I'm going to send you to a place where you can experience it to your heart's content."

Seto raised the rod again and willed all of his power into it. He summoned the shadow realm and pulled it around himself and Kha like a well-worn cloak. The older apprentice looked around wildly, the previous look defiance now replaced by one of sheer terror.

"What are you doing, Seto? Kha asked.

Seto laughed. "I'm going to send you to the shadow realm."

Kha was unable to reply as the inky darkness of the Shadow Realm swallowed him up. When the darkness cleared, Seto was left looking at the inside of an empty cell. He smiled maliciously.

"See how well you like living in your own darkness for the rest of eternity."

Having finished his job, Seto headed to his quarters to have a chat with Kaiba. His double had been very tight lipped about what had happened out in the desert, but Seto had an idea. Kaiba's reaction when he'd brought up the subject of Hori served only to confirm Seto's suspicions, and he had a feeling that Kaiba wasn't about to confide in anyone about what had been done to him. As bad as Seto felt that Kaiba had to endure something that had been meant for him, he had other things to worry about at the moment, like the villagers. Kaiba had to tell him what he and Yugi had seen while with Hori so that he and the pharaoh could better formulate a plan of attack.

When he reached his quarters, he noticed that the door was slightly open. He glared at the guard, but the guard did not meet his gaze. Seto shrugged and entered his room to find the spell book Yami had taken from the library lying on the floor next to two abandoned robes and a pair of the pharaoh's sandals. Seto picked up the book and flipped it open to the spell that Yami had been interested in. He looked around the room, but found that it was empty.

Apparently, Yugi, Yami, and Kaiba had decided to go home.

* * *

'I'm such a coward. My brother would never have given in to Gozaburo. He never did in the past. I let my brother down, I betrayed him.'

Mokuba couldn't bear to look at himself in the mirror so he sat on the edge of the sink with his back to the mirror. It wasn't that he didn't want to see the bruises and cuts on his face. He could handle seeing those. It was the fact that when he saw himself, he saw the scared, cowardly, little boy that Gozaburo had said he was. He should have been able to stand up to Gozaburo, no matter what the man had done to him. He was strong, he had been taught to be strong by the person he loved the most in the world. Now he'd found out that he wasn't strong, he was weak, and his brother would never forgive him for his weakness.

After Joey and Ryou had brought him back to the game shop, Mokuba had locked himself in the bathroom to take a shower and clean up, but he hadn't found the strength to leave and face Joey and the others, afraid that they, too, would see him as a failure and a coward. Gozaburo had beaten him into submission, and it hadn't taken much for the man to get what he'd wanted. Mokuba clutched his shirt where his locket used to be and cursed himself for the hundredth time. Seto had never broken, not once in the years Gozaburo had spent beating him. No, Seto had risen above it and overcome it. What had Mokuba done? He had cried like a baby and given in.

Thoughts of his brother brought memories of Gozaburo's beating, and Mokuba hugged himself to keep his hands from shaking. All he could see was his brother's face twisted in anger and hate, his brother's hands wrapped around his throat, his brother's fists beating him into submission. He knew that it hadn't been Seto but Gozaburo who'd been controlling the body, but it had still been Seto he'd seen, Seto he'd heard taunting him. He didn't want to fear his brother, but a part of his mind couldn't make the distinction.

"I'm such a failure, big brother," Mokuba said through his sobs. "You never would have given in, never would have let him win. I couldn't stop him; I couldn't be strong like you. I'm so sorry."

Mokuba continued to cry, until a pounding on the door brought him out of his reverie.

"Stop that this instant, Mokuba," Joey's voice came through the door as the older teen tried to open it. "Your brother would not have wanted you to lose your life over a stupid locket."

"My brother would never have given in," Mokuba countered. "My brother would have died before he'd lost to Gozaburo."

"You're not your brother," Joey said, his voice getting louder, "he didn't raise you to be like him or do the things he would have done. Your brother would have wanted you to be safe."

Mokuba raised his head and frowned. Was Joey right? Would Seto have wanted him to give in to Gozaburo instead of hanging on until the end? He shook his head. Seto wouldn't have wanted that. Seto hated to lose no matter what. He'd beaten Gozaburo at his own game once and he would hate Mokuba for not being strong enough to beat him again.

"You're lying, Joey," Mokuba yelled. "You don't know my brother."

Joey was silent for a long while and Mokuba began to wonder if the blonde had finally gone away. He wiped the tears from his face, ashamed to be crying like a baby. There was no way he could make up giving control of Kaiba Corporation to his adoptive father, but he'd die trying. He was Seto's little brother, after all.

"I may not know your brother," Joey finally said, his voice unusually soft, "but I do know that he would have given everything to have spared you what you went through. I don't know much about your life with Gozaburo, but I can imagine that if Kaiba did the things he did, it was to keep you from having to experience them or doing similar things. He would never have wanted to lose you to Gozaburo."

Joey's words hit something in Mokuba, something that brought back all the pain, fear, and helplessness he'd felt having to witness how Gozaburo abused his brother. It hadn't been fair and it was never going to be fair. Mokuba hopped off the sink and threw the bathroom door open.

"I just want my brother back, Joey," Mokuba said as he threw himself into Joey's arms and held on to the tall boy tightly. "I want him back."

"What's going on? What happened to you, Mokuba?"

The voice, completely unexpected, startled the two boys out of their conversation. Mokuba pulled himself out of Joey's embrace and turned to see Yugi standing at the door to his room, looking as if he'd just been run over by a car. His face was pale and his cheeks were slightly flushed. He swayed on his feet and looked as if he was about to fall over.

"Yugi!" both Mokuba and Joey cried in unison as they both went to steady the shorter teen.

"What happened? Where have you been?" Joey asked.

"Where's my brother? Is he okay?" Mokuba asked.

Yugi stared from one to the other, looking as if he still wasn't sure whether he was awake or still asleep. His eyes narrowed and his hands instinctively went to touch the Millennium Puzzle. Mokuba saw a look of anxiety and fear cross Yugi's face as he touched only his chest. He looked down and his eyes widened when he realized that he wasn't wearing the puzzle.

"Joey, where is the Millennium Puzzle?" Yugi asked.

Mokuba noticed Joey tense and avert his eyes. Yugi looked up at him pleadingly, as if willing Joey to say that everything was okay, that the puzzle was on the night stand, even if that wasn't really the truth. Mokuba saved Joey from having to say anything, figuring that Yugi, even as bad as he looked, deserved to know the truth.

"Gozaburo has the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi."


	25. Mind's Eye

Greetings and Happy Holidays! I hope that all of you who celebrate the holidays had a wonderful time. I was blessed with a wonderful Christmas that I will remember for a long time to come!

To celebrate, which is ironic, since this story is anything but happy, here is the next chapter. One of my readers for _No Kinen Ni_ mentioned that since it'd been such a long time since I posted I should have a little summary at the top of the chapter to remind everyone about what happened last time, and I think that's a wonderful idea. Thanks for bringing it up.

**_Summary_**: _Yugi, Kaiba, and Yami returned back their time, while Mokuba struggled to come to grips with his encounter with Gozaburo. Priest Seto handled the renegade priest that looks just like Gozaburo Kaiba and Gozaburo poked around the Millennium Puzzle with his newfound abilities._

A few people had asked if we'd seen the last of Priest Seto and Pharaoh Yami. I'm happy to say that no, we haven't seen the last of them. They'll be back. Someone else also corrected my use of 'Pharaoh Yami' instead of the pharaoh's real name. I do know what the pharaoh's name is, having watched through the ending of the series. However, I chose not to use the name in this story when I began writing it, and I will continue to use Pharaoh Yami. To everyone else that replied and urged me to continue: thank you so much! I'll try to write and post as much as I can while I'm on Winter break.

**Warning**: Kaiba flashbacks. They're not graphic, but they are somewhat disturbing, so read with caution.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Part 25: Mind's Eye**

"Gozaburo has the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi."

When Yugi had woken up, it had taken him a while to realize that he was in his own bed, in his own home. When it had finally sunk in, he'd felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It had been an effort to digest everything he'd been through and adjust to yet another change, but he'd put his reservations aside and gotten out of bed. As he'd stumbled out of his room, he'd heard Joey yelling. What he'd been yelling about hadn't become clear until Mokuba had said something about Kaiba. That had reminded Yugi the state in which they'd left things before their trip to Ancient Egypt. He'd rushed out of his room in time to see Mokuba fling open the door to the bathroom and throw himself into Joey's arms. The fact that Mokuba's face was bruised and bloodied alerted Yugi to the fact that a lot had happened while they'd been gone, and a little of the weight had returned to his shoulders. Now that he'd been told that he no longer had possession of the puzzle, he felt completely weighed down again.

"What do you mean, Gozaburo has the puzzle?" Yugi asked, his voice coming out hoarse. "How did he take it?"

Joey and Mokuba both looked at him guiltily, but it was Joey that finally spoke.

"Gozaburo broke in to Ryou's house, where we were staying at the time," he explained. "Mokuba and I weren't there, and Gozaburo attacked Ryou and your grandfather, and then took you. When we broke into the Kaiba mansion to get you back, Gozaburo already had the puzzle. He must have taken it while you were with him."

What could Gozaburo possibly want with the Millennium Puzzle? He couldn't use it, so what use would it be to him? Unless he knew that Kaiba's soul was trapped in the puzzle and planned to get rid of it somehow. Maybe it was worse than that, maybe Gozaburo know about the Millennium Items. If that was the case, then Yami was in as much danger as Kaiba was.

"Did Gozaburo take the Millennium Ring as well when he attacked Ryou?" Yugi asked, looking from Joey to Mokuba's bruised face. He was almost afraid of the answer, almost afraid that their situation had just been complicated even more than it had been before.

"No, Yugi," Mokuba said. "We found the ring in the room with you, but the puzzle was gone. I don't know what Gozaburo wants it for, but my brother is in there. We have to get it back."

Yugi suddenly felt lightheaded. He swayed and would have fallen if two strong arms hadn't held him upright. Yugi turned to thank the person and found himself staring at one of his most recent nightmares. Yugi pushed the white-haired teen away and lost his balance. He stumbled and fell against the wall with a soft cry. His instincts raged at him and he tried to get away from the threat, but his legs wouldn't hold him up, so he ended up sliding down the wall. He pulled his knees up to his chest and closed his eyes in an attempt to block out the memories of lying in the sand, his body broken, as Bakura stood a few feet away and taunted him.

"Yugi, what's wrong?"

Joey's soft, concerned voice did little to calm Yugi's racing heart. He hugged his knees to his chest and buried his face in them, willing the memories to go away. People were speaking around him, but Yugi tuned them out. He reached for a dark corner of his mind where he could hide, where no one could get to him, where nothing would matter anymore. He had almost reached it when a kind, familiar voice caught his attention.

"Yugi, I'm here. You're safe now."

At first, Yugi was so caught up in his memories that he couldn't believe he was actually hearing his grandfather's voice.

"Look at me, Yugi. Don't block us out, please. Let us help you with whatever it is."

Yugi wasn't sure whether he should do as the voice said. He wanted to; he wanted to take comfort from his grandfather, let the elder man shoulder his burdens for a little while, but was afraid to. What if it was an illusion? What if it was another trick? What if he opened his eyes and instead of seeing his grandfather, he saw that he was back in Ancient Egypt, or worse, back with Bakura?

"Yugi, please look at me."

His grandfather sounded so real, so sincere, that Yugi decided to take a chance. He raised his head slowly, expecting the worst, and was surprised when all he saw was his grandfather's kind, worried face staring back at him. The elder man's eyes shone with unshed tears, which made Yugi's eyes burn with tears of his own.

"Grandpa?" Yugi asked tentatively.

His grandfather smiled. "Yes, my boy, I'm here."

That was all the confirmation Yugi needed. He threw himself into his grandfather's arms and held onto him as if the man were the only thing anchoring him to reality. His grandfather's arms wrapped around him tightly and for the first time in a long time Yugi felt safe.

"We'll get through this, Yugi. I don't know how or when, but we will. I promise."

Hearing the heartfelt promise behind the words broke down the last of Yugi's resistance and his tears began to fall. His grandfather held him, and Yugi took the opportunity to cry for all of the things that he had experienced, the horrors he had seen and would never be able to tell anyone about.

* * *

Joey stood to one side with his arm around Mokuba's shaking shoulders as Mr. Moto comforted his grandson. Yugi was sobbing so hard that his entire body shook. The raw emotion in the sound brought tears to Joey's own eyes and he tightened his hold on Mokuba to give the boy comfort as much as to receive it. Ryou still sat on the floor, slightly to the right of Yugi and his grandfather, where he'd landed after Yugi had pushed him away. The white-haired teen looked at the pair with a pained, as well as confused, expression on his face. His face went blank momentarily, signifying that he was talking to the spirit of the ring. When his face returned to normal, Ryou looked even more confused.

"It's okay, Yugi," Mr. Moto whispered to the shaking boy, "let it out."

Mr. Moto's soft voice carried to them all and Joey could only imagine how hard it must be for the elder man to keep his own fears, frustrations, and emotions at bay for the sake of his grandson. Joey looked down at Mokuba who looked paler and more scared than he had earlier.

"It's okay, kid," Joey said so that only Mokuba could hear. The younger Kaiba nodded, but Joey could tell that the words hadn't comforted him all that much.

Yugi's sobs eventually died down and the young man released his grandfather. He wiped at his face, before looking around the room and giving them all an embarrassed and watery smile.

"I'm sorry," Yugi said softly, "I didn't mean to lose it like that."

"No sweat, Yugi," Joey replied, "we all need a good cry every once in a while."

Mr. Moto ruffled Yugi's hair and the two helped each other up. Mr. Moto discreetly wiped at his eyes and smiled a tired, sad smile. Yugi turned to Ryou and his cheeks colored a bit more than they already had from all the crying.

"I'm very sorry, Ryou. I shouldn't have pushed you away like that."

Joey smiled at the apology, because it was so typical of Yugi to worry about others before he worried about himself. Joey's smile faded slightly, however, when he noticed that even though Yugi was smiling, his posture was tense and he stood well away from Ryou's reach. Ryou must have noticed as well, because his face was troubled even as he smiled in return.

"Don't worry about it, Yugi, I'm fine."

Ryou picked himself up and made no move to get closer to Yugi or to anyone else. It looked like Ryou was drawing into himself, separating himself from the rest of them like he had when they'd first met him, before they knew about the spirit of the ring. His thoughts on the matter were interrupted when Mokuba stepped away from him.

"How is my brother?" the young Kaiba asked.

Panic quickly crossed Yugi's face at the question. Mokuba must have caught the look as well, because he got even closer to Yugi, his shoulders immediately tensing.

"What it is? What happened to my brother?"

Yugi shifted his attention to Mokuba and his expression changed. It was as if a mask had clicked into place, leaving Yugi's normally expressive face blank and cold. Joey was stunned into silence at the change. He had seen a similar transformation many times on Kaiba, but never on Yugi. It looked right on Kaiba, because they were all used to Kaiba's cold and indifferent attitude, but the expressionless face looked very wrong on Yugi. What the hell had happened to them?

"Kaiba is probably just as shocked as I am by everything that happened," Yugi said his voice betraying nothing of what he was thinking or feeling. "Why don't we go to the living room so I can catch you all up on what happened? I have a feeling you all have a lot of things to tell me as well."

Joey could only nod his agreement, wondering where his best friend had gone and who this new stranger in front of him was.

* * *

When Yami awoke, he was on the floor of his soul room. At first, he didn't know whether to be relieved to be back in the puzzle, presumably back in his own time, or to be disappointed that he was no longer in Ancient Egypt. The disappointment won out for a moment, and Yami wished that he'd had more time to explore the past. He felt an ache in his chest over the lost opportunity and wondered if he'd ever be able to recall his past on his own. He sighed. It was better to be back, if only for Yugi and Kaiba's sakes. Yami shivered as he remembered the feeling of utter helplessness when he'd held Yugi's dead body in his arms. He hoped to never experience that again.

He sighed, but didn't get up. He lay there, arms and legs outstretched, and closed his eyes. He looked for the thread that connected him to Yugi, to make sure that the young man was with him and doing well. When he didn't find it, Yami's eyes shot open and he sat up. He tried to find Yugi again, but came upon a barrier. Something was blocking his connection with Yugi, but Yami had no idea what it could be.

Yami got up and walked to the door that led to the hallway between soul rooms. He had his hand on the door's handle when something occurred to him. Since something was blocking his connection to Yugi, did that mean that he was blocked from Kaiba as well? Yami had sworn to Yugi that he would block the link he shared with Kaiba, but he had to open it now. This was an emergency, after all.

In the same way he'd done earlier, Yami closed his eyes and looked for the thread that bound him to Seto Kaiba. He found it a few moments later, a faint, glimmering thread at the back of his mind. Tentatively, Yami reached for it and was unprepared for the wave of emotion that hit him as soon as he touched it. He sank into the swirling emotions like a rock sinking to the bottom of the sea. Each emotion hit him so fast that he'd barely had time to recognize one before it was replaced by another. He held onto his own mind, his own thoughts, by sheer will, separating himself from the chaos around him as best he could.

When he had his thoughts under control, he found himself at the edge of a dark cloud. The cloud swirled in time with the emotions, folding in on itself over and over like a nest of snakes. He was standing on the inner edge and could not help but watch in fascination as the cloud swirled and surged around him. Blood red lightning struck every few moments, illuminating the darkness within the cloud. Before long, Yami began to hear voices all around him. They echoed from every direction, some closer than others. Screams could be heard as well, and if Yami listened very carefully, he could also hear sobbing. He was being pulled inwards, towards the center, and the more he stood there the harder it became to fight the force pulling him. It would probably be better to go willingly than to be pulled as he'd been pulled inside this cloud, so before he could change his mind, Yami took a deep breath and headed towards the center.

As he got closer to the center of the cloud, the atmosphere around him thickened and the emotions began to weigh down on him more. The screams got louder, making Yami wince at the piercing sound of the lone voice. The voice was low and rich, clearly that of a man, but panicked and desperate. It bounced back from the edges of the cloud so hard that for a moment, Yami wondered if he were hearing multiple voices. He was finally able to push through the thick atmosphere to the center, where he found a sight he hadn't expected.

Seto Kaiba lay on the ground in a fetal position. His knees had been brought up to his chest and his arms were wrapped protectively around his legs. He was not wearing his white coat, so the black of his shirt and slacks blended in with the surroundings so that only his face, his hands, and his bare feet were visible. Yami was stunned at the sight. He looked closely at Kaiba's face but it was slack, as if in sleep. Kaiba himself wasn't the one screaming, but now that Yami had seen him, he had no doubt that the voice he heard belonged to Kaiba. Yami looked away from Kaiba and focused on the cloud once again. It took him a while to realize that what he was seeing, hearing, and feeling was a physical manifestation of Kaiba's own thoughts and feelings. Kaiba probably was not aware that his emotions were being manifested or that Yami was present to witness them. Yami hesitated, torn between leaving what was a very private, and very emotional, part of Kaiba's soul and the need to find out why he couldn't connect with Yugi if he could obviously connect with Kaiba. Logic won out and Yami stepped forward and kneeled beside Kaiba. He'd deal with Kaiba's outburst at the intrusion later.

Now that he was closer, Yami noticed that Kaiba's eyes were tightly closed and his hands were gripping his legs so tightly that his fingers were white. Yami put a hand on Kaiba's shoulder to let the teenager know that he was there. As soon as his hand touched Kaiba's body, Kaiba's eyes shot open and Yami gasped at the raw fear he saw in the blue depths. Before he could process what he'd seen, the surroundings changed. They were no longer in the middle of the chaos of the cloud. Instead, they were in a dimly lit room, the only illumination coming from a single lamp on an old, wooden table. Yami was still kneeling on the floor, but Kaiba was now standing a few feet away far from Yami's reach. Kaiba's face was back to its normal, emotionless state, even though he was still barefoot and without his white coat.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kaiba growled.

The teenager stood stiffly, his hands clenched at his sides, his entire posture radiating tension, and glared at Yami.

Yami got to his feet and took a step closer to Kaiba, and was surprised when Kaiba took a step back. Yami was still reeling from what he'd just witnessed so he didn't immediately respond to Kaiba's question. How could a person whose soul was so troubled, so disjointed and in chaos, act so normal? How could Kaiba manage to shove all of the feelings Yami had just inadvertently experienced away and act as if nothing were wrong, as if his soul weren't slowly being shredded to pieces? Could Kaiba really not know what was going on in his unconscious mind, in his soul? Could he be that good at lying to himself?

"I asked you a question, damn it!"

No, Kaiba knew exactly what was going on and was using his anger, his detachment, and his cruelty to hide behind. The revelation left Yami stunned. How had he failed to realize this about Kaiba before now? How could he not have seen what Kaiba was doing, how he'd managed to survive all of these years? The anger that had instinctively flared up as soon as Kaiba had started to speak faded away like the last embers of a dying fire. He couldn't feel angry, not when he felt confused and afraid for the teenager standing in front of him.

Kaiba's anger was so tangible that Yami could feel it brushing against his skin like a soft breeze. He had no doubt that if Kaiba so desired, that same anger could hit like a sharp knife. The more he observed Kaiba, however, the more nervous the teenager became. Now he was looking at Yami as if he was expecting something to happen, something he already knew he wasn't going to like.

"I couldn't reach Yugi," Yami finally said, his voice soft in the wide space around them. "I wanted to see if I could reach you. I didn't mean to intrude."

Kaiba's right eyebrow rose. Yami could see the disbelief in Kaiba's eyes, but he could also tell that Kaiba didn't want to admit that what Yami saw had been real. Admitting it to Yami would be like admitting it to himself, and Yami was sure Kaiba didn't want to, or couldn't, do that.

"You told Yugi that you would not use this connection we have," Kaiba said. "You broke your word."

The accusation hit Yami like a slap. Kaiba was right; he had broken his vow to Yugi. Saying that he'd done it because it had been an emergency seemed foolish and trivial, so Yami kept his mouth shut. Instead, he walked away from Kaiba and looked around. There was nothing around them but empty space, not even the inky blackness that was the shadow realm. If it weren't for the single lamp, they'd be shrouded in darkness.

"Could you try to reach Yugi? It's important to know if the spell was successful in returning us to the present and Yugi is the only one that can tell us that."

Kaiba stared at him, before slowly nodding. His eyes lost their focus for a moment and his face contorted slightly as if in intense concentration. Yami was beginning to get worried about the lack or reply when Kaiba focused on him once again.

"I can't reach him. I think something is blocking me."

"That's what I thought. It is likely that Yugi is not wearing the puzzle."

Kaiba frowned. "Who has it, then?"

Yami wasn't given a chance to respond, because he was suddenly pulled out of the connection with Kaiba and shoved back into his own mind so hard that he stumbled and hit the door he'd been holding. He shook his head to clear it and looked around for Kaiba, but the teenager was nowhere around. Yami was back in his own soul room. He shook his head once again and returned his hand to the door handle. He'd just have to go to Kaiba's soul room and finish the conversation Kaiba had so rudely terminated. Determined, Yami yanked on the door and was surprised when nothing happened. He pushed the handle once again, but the door didn't budge.

"It's locked."

* * *

Kaiba opened his eyes, expecting to see the room where he'd been talking to Yami. Instead, he was lying face down on a white, tiled floor. His face was pressed against the cold tile, which made him shiver. He winced, expecting to feel the agonizing pain that had been his companion for the last few days, but felt nothing. He frowned and tensed his muscles slowly, one by one, but felt nothing but the ache that came from lying on a cold floor for an extended period of time. Kaiba slowly got to his knees and ran his hand over his chest and legs. There was no blood, no rips in his clothing, and no pain. He looked around and the first thing he saw was a growing puddle of blood on the floor. He shivered and realized that he was no longer where he'd been, but in the hot, Egyptian desert, watching the sky as his body was used and manipulated in ways he hadn't agreed to.

* * *

"_NOOO!"_

"_Shut him up, will you? I don't want to hear him."_

_The assault had grown into a continuous thing, and Kaiba could no longer tell where one ended and another began. He had little strength left, but he continued to struggle. He'd broken his legs free a couple of times, but all that had earned him were more blows and more brutality. He couldn't stop fighting, though. It just wasn't in his nature to give in. _

"_Stop, let go!"_

_He had to keep yelling, even though he was rapidly losing his voice. Voicing the anguish being inflicted upon him was the only thing keeping him sane. He couldn't swallow it down as he usually did. If he swallowed the pain, the humiliation, and the agony this time, he was going to lose his mind. _

"_I'm kind of enjoying the yelling," someone said and jabbed Kaiba in the ribs, forcing another yell from him. _

"_It's my turn now and I want him to shut up."_

_His knees were forced apart once again and Hori's hand clamped down over his mouth, muffling, but not stopping, his screams. Kaiba yelled louder and managed to bit Hori's hand. Warm blood flowed into his mouth and almost choked him. Hori cursed, unsheathed a knife with his other hand, and placed the tip against Kaiba's throat._

"_If you don't shut up, I'm going to slit your throat right here and now, and then we'll finish what we started with the little pharaoh over there."  
_

_Hori turned Kaiba's head so that he was facing the man that had Yugi by the throat and was forcing him to watch what was being done to Kaiba. Yugi's face was stained with tears and his eyes were wide with terror. When their eyes met, Yugi began to thrash around wildly in an attempt to break free. Shame flooded through Kaiba's veins at being seen in the position he was in. If they survived this, which he now hoped he didn't, Yugi would never look at him the same way again. Maybe he should disobey Hori and scream anyway. Maybe the man would slit his throat and end this nightmare for him. One more look at Yugi, however, made the decision for him. _

_Kaiba stopped fighting them and went still. Hori grinned and turned his head away from Yugi, but kept the knife at his throat. The attack began again and Kaiba had to bite the inside of his cheek hard enough to draw blood to keep from uttering a sound. Yugi began yelling, and Kaiba figured that the younger man would yell enough for both of them. He looked up at the blue, cloudless, sky and began to lose himself in the surroundings until he could no longer feel anything or hear anything. His only hope was that it would all end soon.

* * *

_

The pain was suddenly there once again, and Kaiba doubled over as his stomach threatened to empty itself. His breath came in short, fast gasps, and a small part of his mind knew that he was hyperventilating. He forced himself to take deep, full breaths until he regained the oxygen he'd lost. The memory slowly faded, and he was back where he'd been, staring at the white, tiled floor. Kaiba closed his eyes and continued to take deep breaths to calm his racing heart. His body may no longer have the injuries inflicted during the attack, but the incident was forever burned into his mind so that he would never forget what they felt like.

When he'd calmed down enough, he got to his feet and looked around, realizing for the first time that he was back in his soul room. The room had changed in appearance since the last time he'd been in it, but Kaiba figured that it had a lot to do with the changes that had occurred in him since what happened in the desert. Suddenly, he couldn't bear to be in the room any more. The broken and rusted computer equipment reminded him too much of how he saw himself now and he whirled around to head for the door. As he turned, he bumped into someone. He gasped, not having expected anyone else to be in the room with him, and stumbled back a few paces. When he focused once again, he was looking at Gozaburo Kaiba's sneering face.

"Welcome back, Seto," the man said. "I was getting tired of waiting, and you know how much I hate to do that."

Kaiba's breath caught in his throat and he could feel his body going numb. He had not expected to find his adoptive father in this room, not when this room was supposed to be his own, inside a millennia old piece of jewelry that only a select few could manipulate. Gozaburo walked towards him until the man was invading Kaiba's personal space. Kaiba felt disgust course through him, but he could not move away.

"Surprise," Gozaburo said. "I told you I would be back to settle certain things with you."

The shock finally wore off and Kaiba stepped away from Gozaburo, but not before seeing the triumphant look in the older man's eyes. He thought about running for the door, but he refused to show weakness in front of Gozaburo. He'd beaten the man at his own game when he was barely a teenager and he was not about to back off now.

"How can you be inside the puzzle?" Kaiba asked, his voice as steady as he could make it. He could see from Gozaburo's smirk, however, that he hadn't done a very good job of it.

"It's magic," Gozaburo said, "Ancient Egyptian magic, to be exact. I had a lot of time to read while I was in the computer."

Kaiba paced slowly, wanting to channel his nervousness in a way that wouldn't be too apparent to Gozaburo. He recalled the priest he had that run in with while in Ancient Egypt: the priest that had injured Priest Seto, the man that had looked exactly like Gozaburo Kaiba. Dread settled in the pit of Kaiba's stomach at the thought that just as Yugi and Ryou, and to an extent, he himself, could manipulate magic because of their past lives, that Gozaburo would have that same privilege as well. How were they going to stop him if they had to worry about the man using magic?

"Don't you want to know why I'm here, Seto?"

Kaiba stopped pacing and faced his adoptive father. "I'm sure you'll enlighten me, Gozaburo," he said with much more bravado than he felt.

Gozaburo laughed. "I just wanted to let you know that I have this," he said and took out the locket.

Kaiba instinctively reached up to his chest and touched the one that he still wore. He was surprised to see, however, that he was no longer wearing the Millennium Puzzle.

"It's not your locket, Seto. I think Yugi still has that. This is Mokuba's locket. You'll be pleased to know that he now understands the kind of discipline I gave you while you were under my care."

Kaiba's head snapped up as fury and fear raced through his veins. He looked at Gozaburo and his panic must have shown on his face, because the man made a great show of inspecting the locket and then putting it back in his pocket. The only way Mokuba could understand how Gozaburo had disciplined him was if… Kaiba cut the thought short. He felt sick just thinking about the consequences.

"Not only does little Mokuba understand my discipline, but he know also knows what it feels like for his older brother to administer that discipline."

Kaiba's fists clenched at his side. "You beat Mokuba with my body, you son of a bitch? You had to beat up a teenage kid to prove that you were macho, is that it?"

Without thinking, Kaiba rushed Gozaburo. He punched the man so hard that he was sent flying into one of the workbenches. Kaiba rushed to pick Gozaburo up and hit him again, when he was suddenly halted in his tracks. His body would not move. Gozaburo got up from the floor, his laughter echoing eerily through the room. He approached Kaiba, wiping his bloodied nose with one hand. When he reached Kaiba, he grabbed the teen's chin hard enough to make Kaiba cry out softly. The older man's hand on his chin brought memories of other men, other hands on his body, and it took everything he had not to lose himself in the memories. It took even more of an effort to keep his expression as neutral as he could and not let Gozaburo know how much he despised the touch.

"I'm prepared for you, Seto. I control this puzzle now and as soon as I find out how to get rid of your soul, I will destroy it."

With that, Gozaburo disappeared. The force that had been holding Kaiba in place let go, which sent Kaiba to the ground. He sat there, shaking in both fear and anger. Every thought in his mind disappeared until only Mokuba's face remained. He'd worked so hard to keep Gozaburo away from his younger brother during all the years they'd been under Gozaburo's care. Kaiba hadn't wanted Mokuba to experience the violence and anger that Gozaburo lived with, and had given up his own childhood so that Mokuba could enjoy his. Now, all of that effort and sacrifice had been for nothing. Gozaburo had still been able to hurt Mokuba, and what made things worse was that he'd done it using Kaiba's own body. What would his younger brother think of him now? How could they ever have the same relationship again? Kaiba lowered his head and clutched at the locket hanging around his neck. If he lost his brother, what else was there? Would life be worth fighting for?

* * *

Yugi had been telling his tale about their trip to Ancient Egypt for half and hour and Joey and Mr. Moto had been telling Yugi about what had been happening here. Yugi had told them how they'd met the pharaoh and the priest, how they'd been in the palace in ancient times and how they'd eventually gotten the spell book to get back home. The whole time Yugi had been speaking, Ryou had been only half paying attention. He'd sat away from the others, on the floor by the door to the living room, close enough to hear Yugi, but not close enough to cause him any more stress. Ryou didn't know why, but ever since Yugi had shoved him away, he'd had this bad feeling that he'd done something to Yugi to warrant that sort of reaction. Logically, he knew that was impossible, because he hadn't been with Yugi, Yami, and Kaiba when they'd been in Egypt. Just because he hadn't been there didn't mean that someone that looked just like him had not been there either.

The thought had brought a sudden rush of guilt. As unwarranted as he knew it was, he couldn't help but feel responsible for the actions of the spirit of the ring. He had, of course, tried to talk to Bakura and get some answers about what had happened in Egypt, but the spirit had refused to talk to him. Ryou knew that he couldn't force Bakura to say anything when he didn't want to, so he'd just left the ring and forced himself to listen to what Yugi was saying. He didn't miss, however, the subtle glances that Yugi sent his way when he thought Ryou wasn't paying attention. As much as he wanted to bring the situation up to Yugi, Ryou didn't think that he could do it. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't want to be the cause of another breakdown like the one Yugi had experienced earlier.

"Did you run into anyone else while you were there?" Joey asked and turned his attention to Ryou. "Didn't the spirit of the ring also exist during the pharaoh's time?"

Yugi turned to look at Ryou as well and then shook his head. "No, we were just in the palace for the most part. I didn't see anyone else."

Ryou didn't know Yugi as well as Tea, or even Joey, did, but even he could tell that Yugi was lying. Why, he hadn't the slightest idea, but he had a feeling that the sprit of the ring could provide some answers.

"Are you sure, Yugi?" Mr. Moto asked.

"I'm sure. I've told you all you need to know. Now what we need to do is figure out how to get the puzzle back."

Ryou tuned everyone out again and went back into the ring. He had to talk to Bakura, and if the spirit still refused to cooperate, Ryou would just have to figure out a way to make him talk.

"Why do you have to know what happened?"

Ryou jumped slightly at the unexpected voice. He turned around to find Bakura leaning against a pillar that hadn't been there a few seconds ago, looking at him intently.

"If Yugi is going to jump every time I'm around, I want to know why."

Bakura was silent for a moment. He looked as if he were debating something with himself, and Ryou had to fight the urge to tell him to hurry it up.

"Why should it matter whether Yugi feels comfortable around you? Why do you care?"

"He's my friend," Ryou stated. "If something happened in Egypt between you and him, I want to know about it."

Bakura pushed his body off the pillar and walked to Ryou. "Are you sure you want to know?

Ryou met the spirit's eyes and wondered whether he really had to know. The burning hatred he saw in Bakura's eyes made him stop for a moment and wonder if he was doing the right thing. Was ignorance really bliss? After a moment, Ryou made his decision.

"Ignorance is for fools. I need to know what happened."

Bakura shrugged and waved his arm in front of them. The scene changed and Ryou was now standing in the middle of an abandoned village in the desert. In front of him, he could see the thief, dressed in a long, red robe, standing on top of a rock. Ryou could only see the side of his face, but it was enough to see the angry scar that marred his cheek. The thief looked rougher, and a lot deadlier, than the one standing beside him now did. Yugi stood in front of the rock, dressed in a brown robe. He looked dirty and tired, but there was anger in his eyes that Ryou had never seen from his normally calm friend.

_"What do you want from me?" Yugi asked. "Why did you bring me here?"_

_The thief shrugged. "I wanted to hold you hostage and demand ransom for you," he said. "Now, however, I don't think that's a good idea. If the pharaoh comes, he'll bring his priests, and I really don't want to deal with them. Instead, I'll make you a deal."_

_The thief hopped down and stood in front of Yugi._

_"If you give me your Millennium Puzzle, I will take you back to the palace, safe and unharmed."_

_Yugi narrowed his eyes. "You want my puzzle?" Yugi asked, his voice soft and as cold as a glacier. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"_

_The thief seemed confused. "How would you know what I want?"_

_Yugi chuckled. "You have a single track mind, Bakura. You want to gather the seven items and attain ultimate power, right? If it's not that, then it's something equally as ridiculous. You already have the ring, so now you want my puzzle, right?"_

_The thief's hand lashed out and caught Yugi on the side of the face, which sent him flying towards the rock the thief had been standing on. Yugi hit it with his right arm and he screamed and then let his body slide to the floor. He cradled his now useless arm against his chest as he waited for the thief to come closer. When he was within reach, Yugi kicked him in the knee. The thief's knee buckled and he howled as his leg gave out. As the thief fell, Yugi kicked with his other leg and managed to hit him in the face. A satisfying crunch could be heard above the thief's curses, and blood spurted from his nose._

_Yugi pulled himself to his feet as the thief writhed on the floor. Blood covered the thief's face and white hair, but the thief was concentrating on his knee instead._

_"You little brat," the thief said, his voice muffled by his broken nose. "You will pay for this."_

_Yugi turned and walked away. Ryou watched in horrid fascination as the thief summoned the most frightening monster Ryou had ever seen. The monster, which was half beast and half snake, moved towards Yugi, whose back was still to the theif and the monster. When Yugi finally turned around, his eyes widened at the sight and he stood still, as if he were paralyzed to the spot._

_"I don't need to physically harm you, boy. My loyal servant will take care of it for me."_

_The monster rushed Yugi, which broke the paralysis. Yugi ran as fast as his legs could carry him through the rocky ground, but Ryou could already tell that it wasn't enough. The monster surrounded Yugi, which caused Ryou to lose sight of his friend. He could hear Yugi screaming, however, and the sound sent shivers up Ryou's spine. Suddenly, a bright flash of yellow caught his attention, and the thief's beast was thrown away from the now falling Yugi by a now visible Ra. Yugi kept falling, but managed to twist his body just before he hit the ground. His right shoulder took most of the impact, as did his right hip. Ryou heard the sickening crack of bone breaking and winced at the sound. Yugi lay on the ground, groaning in pain as tears fell down the side of his face. His breath rattled in his lungs and Ryou knew enough about medicine to know that some ribs had been broken in the fall. _

_Ra was floating over Yugi, protecting its young master. Ryou was in awe at the sight of the God, roaring it's discontent at the treatment his master was receiving. The thief didn't seem afraid. If anything, he seemed even angrier. _

_  
"So that's how you want to decide this," the thief said as he came to a halt beside his monster, "my monster and your god. That's fine with me, boy. Let's see whose spirit is stronger."_

The images faded there, and Ryou found himself wanting to see the rest of the fight. He turned to Bakura, who had not been watching the scene play out in front of him.

"What happened, Bakura?" Ryou asked.

Bakura shrugged once again. "I won, of course."

"What do you mean, you won?"

"I won, Ryou. Yugi died and I won. Until the pharaoh and the high priest showed up, that is. I had to leave then."

Ryou frowned. Bakura's words seemed proud, almost glad of what had happened. Hadn't he just said that Yugi had died? If Yugi had died, how did he come back?

"The high priest must have revived Yugi," Bakura said, as if he'd been reading Ryou's thoughts, which Ryou supposed was entirely possible. "I don't really know or care."

"Does Yami know about this?" Ryou asked, concerned for the sprit of the ring despite everything he'd just seen.

"Yes. He was there with the pharaoh and the high priest."

Ryou shook his head. He could still hear the sound of Yugi's body hitting the ground and had a feeling it was going to be in his mind for a long time. No wonder Yugi didn't want to be anywhere near him. Why should he feel guilty, though, since he wasn't the one that had actually harmed Yugi? He supposed it didn't matter, since he was always guilty be association anyway. Ryou sighed and dropped to his knees. He put his head in his hands and sighed.

"You wanted to know, Ryou. Now that you do, what are you going to do about it?"

* * *

Next up: Yami and Kaiba come up with a plan. Ryou and Bakura have a discussion about what happened in Ancient Egypt. 


	26. Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Greetings! It's only been a little over two weeks this time, so I'm getting a bit better. The bad news is that I started school this last week, so things are going to get busy for me again. I can hear the collective groans now. I'll do my best to post relatively quickly. I hope that everyone had a good holiday.

Reviews: Whee, I get to do replies again ::does happy dance::

**Wings Of A Phoenix:** Thanks for the review! You didn't have to wait very long for the next chapter.

**Hobbit13: **Yami does know that something bad happened to Kaiba while he was with the bandits. After all, Yami was there when they found Kaiba. He just doesn't realize that it was something as severe as rape. Yami isn't even thinking along those lines, not yet anyway. You're right about Ryou, this is not one of his better weeks. Come to think of it, everyone is having a sucky time. Thank you for your review!

**Lazer Wulf: **Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. I figured that Bakura needed to know what happened between the thief and Yugi, or else he was going to go crazy trying to figure out why Yugi was freaking out around him. It's going to be interesting for the both of them, to say the least. Here's hoping that the wait for this chapter wasn't too long!

**rekkanotara**: You made me blush! Thank you for the lovely compliment. Don't worry about not reviewing to every chapter. I'm very glad that you reviewed this one and that you're enjoying the story. I am sorry to hear that you've been under a lot of stress and hope that it's gotten better for you. Don't worry; I don't think you're weird for enjoying Kaiba angst. If that were the case, half of us would have to be called that. Thanks for reviewing. I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.

**Trempush**: Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.

**Katie Torango**: Hey there! I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the chapter and the flashbacks. They are a good way to tell part of the story I didn't want to write in full, and I'm glad that they're working out. Thanks!

**Nenya85**: You bring up a very good point. While Kaiba may come off as selfish, rude, and cruel, I don't think that's really the case. We know that he would do anything for Mokuba, but in this story at least, Kaiba is willing to help others as well. Especially in the situation he was in. He wouldn't have wanted Yugi to experience the same thing he was. Kaiba learned to protect Mokuba by sheer necessity and he used what worked. He'd protect Mokuba by picking fights with bullies in the orphanage, and then later protected him by picking fights with Gozaburo. In a way, Kaiba sees Yugi as someone who needs to be protected, and so he decided to do so in the only way he knew how. He denied himself the escape he so desperately wanted, at that point at least, to keep Yugi from experiencing the same thing. I realize that the way I'm writing him might be OOC, but it works for the story.

**Luthien:** Not a problem! Shame on the inbox for sending the story alerts to the junk pile, though. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter.

**S.K Hashmi**: YAY! I'm glad I could fulfill your need to read. I totally understand what you mean. I used to be like that, when I had a lot of free time. I'm the type of person who hates not having anything to do, so when I had nothing to do, I always read. Now it's textbooks and certification books that I read (and fanfictions every once in a while), but it's still reading.

Nope, the story is not drawing to a close. There are still a lot of unresolved issues that need to be dealt with before the story can come to a good place to end. I doubt there will be an 'ending' in the traditional sense, but I'm nowhere near there.

About Yami's promise: do you mean his promise not to use the link with Kaiba, or something else that I've forgotten about? ::Shakes head in attempt to recall what has been written:: I should go back and read previous chapters, but I'm always so unhappy with everything I've written that I make myself depressed. So, I choose not to reread anything once it's posted. That's pretty bad.

Thanks for the review!

**SocialReject**: I'm glad you like how Yugi is changing. Don't get me wrong, I like him being sweet and innocent, but after going through something like what he went through, there's no way he can remained the same. It's been interesting to explore and I hope that it turns out well. Thanks for the review!

**BH**: I feel awful at making you all wait for so long between updates. I keep expecting everyone to abandon the story, but I'm glad that you are still reading. Thanks for the review and I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.

**Tiryns**: Kaiba suffering in silence is pretty sad, but it's what most rape victims tend to do. It's hard to talk about something that traumatic, that intimate, so it becomes easier to just shove it inside. For someone like Kaiba, it becomes doubly hard, because he's not used to being that vulnerable. Hopefully he can get to a place where he'll be able to confide in someone. Thanks!

**Trempush**: Thanks for giving the story a try. I hope that you continue to enjoy it.

**lilmatchgirl007**: Thanks for the review! I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, sadness and all.

**padfootgrl126**: ::shakes head as she tries to get her hearing back:: LOL! Thank you! I'm glad you liked the chapter. Ryou has always been the type to take in more guilt than he needed to, and this is no exception. He's going to have a hard time dealing with everything as well. You know me, I'm an equal opportunity character torturer… I hope that you didn't have to sit in front of the computer too long. I'd hate to be the one to pry you out of it. Thanks!

**KaibaKisses**: I like your pen name! I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, and that you're enjoying No Kinen Ni as well. I'm going to try for more regular updates (meaning every couple of weeks instead of every couple of months) so stay tuned. Be careful with those chairs, though. You don't want to break anything the next time you fall over, right?

**Mutou Yasu**: I know, I'm so mean to make everyone sad. I can't help it though, it's like a disease or something ::considers checking herself into the looney bin then changes mind, remembering that there is no internet access there:: Yup, they'll definitely have to live with the sadness for a while.

**Aura Black Chan**: Ryou is going to be torn about the whole thing. Bakura is a part of him, an evil and violent part, but a part nonetheless. At the same time, Yugi is his friend and he cares for the little guy. It'll be a hard road. Thanks for the review!

**Speedy-anime-angel**: Thanks for the review. I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far.

**Bayleef**: I think you're on the right track, huggling everyone in the cast. They sure need it. I have a feeling they're going to need it for a long time to come. Thanks!

**Saiyan Jedi**: YAY! It only took a couple of weeks to update this time. I'm sorry to hear that you're not feeling well. I hope that you are by now. ::Sends cyber chicken soup::

**Mimiheart**: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. I think I'm going to have fun with Ryou. He's such a good guy to write with a guilt trip.

**mavrick-angel**: ::joins in happy dance:: Let people stare… after all, they're the ones that are crazy, right? Priest Seto and Pharaoh Yami will make an appearance… well now if I told you that, I'd be spoiling the story, wouldn't I? They'll show up eventually. Let's say that guilt has something to do with it. Gee, that seems to be a theme in this story, doesn't it? Thanks!

**MotherCHOWGoddess**: Hey there! Are you going to write anything anytime soon? Yeah, I know I'm the last one that should be complaining about updates, but still. Ohh, the original Johnny Quest. I remember that. It was such a cool anime. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter, trauma and all.

**shadowwaker: **I'm not sure if you got the e-mail I sent, but I LOVED the fanart you sent me. Wow, I'm so in awe of your talent. I loved the idea and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Thank you again for doing that for me. Kaiba, Yugi, and Ryou are in different situations, each serious in its own way. Hopefully they'll all be able to work through it. Thanks for the review and I'm glad that I can brighten your day with dark stories!

**Warnings: **Yugi has a flashback. Also, the song has some bad words in it

Now on to the chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

**Part 26: Boulevard of Broken Dreams**

"You wanted to know, Ryou. Now that you do, what are you going to do about it?"

Ryou heard Bakura's question but chose not to answer it immediately. After all, what could he say? What should he say? How did he feel about that fact that the ancient thief had kidnapped and killed Yugi simply because he had felt like it? Ryou had known that Bakura was capable of such violence, but he'd never witnessed it. Bakura took over his body to do whatever he wanted, so Ryou had always been left in the dark. He had heard the accounts from other people, of course, but he'd never been a witness. Now that he'd seen Bakura's violence directed at his friend, however, he didn't know what to think.

_I walk a lonely road  
The only one that I have ever known  
Don't know where it goes  
But it's home to me and I walk alone  
_

"At least now I understand why Yugi pushed me away when I got close to him," Ryou finally managed to say. "I can understand why he broke down now too," Ryou added, still refusing to look at Bakura.

Ryou had always been a calm and peaceful person, so he couldn't understand why Bakura was driven to such violence. He couldn't help but feel anger at the spirit for what he'd done and what it meant to his friendship with Yugi now. Yugi had been one of the few people that had been willing to talk to him when he'd first come to Domino, and Ryou had always appreciated that. He'd cherished the friendship and had hoped that they could remain friends for a long time to come. It looked like that wasn't going to be the case anymore.

_I walk this empty street  
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams  
Where the city sleeps  
and I'm the only one and I walk alone  
_

"Yami is going to want revenge for this," Ryou said. "I'm not going to get in his way."

Bakura kneeled beside Ryou, grabbed his chin, and violently lifted Ryou's head so that their eyes met.

"You're going to take that brat's side in this?" Bakura growled. "Why does it not surprise me? You always were a weakling."

Ryou pulled his head out of Bakura's grasp, wincing as the sprit's fingers dug into his chin before finally pulling free. He got to his feet and turned his back on the spirit.

"I've never understood why you do what you do, Bakura. You shut me out, you pretend that I don't exist and use my body when it suits you," Ryou said, his hands trembling. Whether they trembled in rage or fear, Ryou didn't know. "I can't control your actions any more than I can control the wind, even though the body belongs to me. But just because I have no control doesn't mean that I condone what you do."

With that, Ryou willed himself out of the ring; when he returned to the body, he was surprised to see Joey kneeling in front of him, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Earth to Ryou, Earth to Ryou."

Ryou gasped in surprise at Joey's proximity and scooted back a bit. "What is it?" he asked.

"We were just wondering if you had anything to add to the plan," Joey said as he retook his seat on the couch.

"No," was all he said.

He hadn't heard the plan, but he figured that even if they told it to him, he wouldn't be able to process any of it at the moment. He'd ask about it later.

"Okay then. Let's get something to eat, and they we'll get started."

Ryou stayed on the floor as everyone left to go to the dining area. He wanted some time to think away from everyone else. He should probably go home, but he didn't consider his home as a safe place anymore. Besides, he wanted to be here to help in any way he could. Now, however, he figured that his presence would be more of a hindrance than a help.

"He told you, didn't he? I was pretty sure he'd remember."

The question startled Ryou out of his musings and he looked up to see Yugi standing a few feet away from him. Yugi was clutching his right arm as if in remembered pain and Ryou couldn't help but feel the guilt return to him once again.

"He didn't tell me, Yugi, he showed me," Ryou replied. "I'm sorry," he added.

Yugi shrugged, but didn't come closer. "Why are you sorry? You weren't the one that attacked me."

"I know," Ryou whispered, "I know."

He got up and was halfway to the door when he stopped and turned to face Yugi once again. "What was it like to die?"

Yugi seemed surprised, and then his eyes narrowed in the same anger Ryou had seen in Yugi during the vision Bakura had shown him.

"It was one of the most horrible, and painful, things I've ever experienced," Yugi finally said. "I hope that someday, the spirit of the ring gets what he deserves."

Without another glance, Yugi walked out of the room. Ryou watched Yugi go and sighed when the shorter teen finally disappeared from view. Ryou had an feeling that when the spirit of the ring got what he deserved, Ryou was going to be trapped right in the middle of it all.

* * *

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
'Til then I walk alone_

The cold breeze made Yugi shudder as he stepped out of his house, and he wrapped his arms around himself for warmth. He felt a strange emptiness when he didn't feel the comforting warmth of the Millennium Puzzle, and he had to fight a sob at the resulting feeling of helplessness. He felt completely alone, just like he'd felt in Ancient Egypt. It wasn't supposed to be that way once they'd returned to their time. He was supposed to have Yami with him at all times, and recently, Kaiba as well. Yugi missed them both and wondered how they were. Yami had been very angry about what Bakura had done when Yugi had last seen him, and very confused about what had happened to Kaiba. Yugi still remembered the look of confusion, and pleading, in Yami's eyes as they'd both kneeled next to Kaiba's unconscious body in Priest Seto's quarters. Yugi clenched his teeth as his guilt over his inability to tell Yami anything surfaced yet again. Would Yami even understand if Yugi told him? Would he accept the fact that Kaiba wasn't the selfish, sadistic bastard Yami was making him out to be? Would Yami accept the fact that Yugi was now a murderer?

Yugi shuddered as images he had wanted to bury back in that forsaken desert suddenly invaded his mind.

* * *

_He didn't want to see it, he didn't want to hear it, he didn't want it to be happening, but Yugi was helpless to do anything about it. His arms and chest felt as if they'd break from the pressure that the man holding him was putting on them. His throat was sore and raw from yelling, but nothing compared to Kaiba's. The teenager's voice had almost given out, but he was still fighting, he was still yelling. Yugi was sure he'd hear Kaiba's screams for the remainder of his life and he had no doubt that he would never forget what he was seeing now. _

_He was being held only a few feet away from where Kaiba was being attacked, close enough to see and hear everything, but not close enough to be of any help. Yugi kept his eyes on Kaiba's face, because he couldn't stand to look anywhere else. He was close enough to see how the muscles in Kaiba's neck stood out as they were tensed, how Kaiba's Adam's apple moved every time he swallowed, how his chest rose every time he breathed in to scream, and Yugi could also clearly see the tears steadily running down the side of Kaiba's face, which made Yugi's own tears fall faster. He felt as if it was his duty to commit the event to memory. He would not dishonor Kaiba by looking away, by pretending that this wasn't happening. He was a witness and would not shy away from what he was seeing. He would stand by Kaiba in the only way available to him. _

"_Shut him up, will you? I don't want to hear him."_

_Yugi turned his attention to the man that had spoken and wished he hadn't. The cruelty on his face nearly made Yugi throw up. He returned his attention to Kaiba, who was getting weaker by the moment. The blood around him was growing at an alarming rate and Yugi wondered how it was that Kaiba was still conscious. _

"_Stop, let go!"_

_Kaiba strained against the hands holding him down even as his struggles became weaker and weaker. _

"_I'm kind of enjoying the yelling," someone said and jabbed Kaiba in the ribs, forcing another yell from him. _

"_It's my turn now and I want him to shut up."_

_Hori's hand clamped down over Kaiba's mouth, muffling, but not stopping, his screams. Kaiba yelled louder and must have bitten Hori's hand, because warm blood flowed from between the hand and Kaiba's mouth. Hori cursed, unsheathed a knife with his other hand, and placed the tip against Kaiba's throat._

"_If you don't shut up, I'm going to slit your throat right here and now, and then we'll finish what we started with the little pharaoh over there."  
_

_The words caused Yugi to freeze his own struggles for a moment as the men's eyes turned towards him. The leering expressions sent shivers down his spine and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that if they attacked him, he would not survive with his sanity intact. _

_Hori turned Kaiba's head so that he was facing Yugi and their eyes met. There was nothing in Kaiba's blue eyes that was recognizable as the cocky, cold, and self confident young man Yugi had come to know. Instead, Kaiba's eyes reflected such sadness, hopelessness, and pain that it made Yugi want to fight harder, try harder to get loose and help Kaiba. As he struggled, and as Kaiba realized that Yugi was a witness to what was being done to him, bitter shame replace everything in Kaiba's eyes. Yugi would have given anything at that moment just to be able to reassure Kaiba that what was happening was not his fault, that he shouldn't feel ashamed. In the end, his voice wouldn't work and he couldn't say a thing. _

_Kaiba stopped fighting then and went still. Hori grinned and turned Kaiba's head away from Yugi, but kept the knife at his throat. The attack began again and Kaiba remained quiet. He didn't scream, he didn't whimper, and Yugi noticed that the tears had stopped falling. _

"_No, Kaiba, fight them!" Yugi yelled desperately. "Don't give in to them, fight them! Don't worry about me, damn it! Fight!"_

_Kaiba did not respond, he just lay there, unmoving except for the motion caused by the men. Hori finally took his hand off Kaiba's mouth and sheathed his knife. He let go of Kaiba's hands, and Kaiba made no move to get away. He was like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Hori turned to Yugi and grinned. It was then that the anger, rage, and helplessness began to build in Yugi. He could feel the emotions, like the eye of a rapidly evolving hurricane, twisting in the calm center while the forces around them churned and twisted. It wasn't hard for Yugi to feed the emotions: all he had to do was take one look at the now limp Kaiba, and then at the men standing around him. It was easy to gather the energies and then crush them together like one would crush snow to make a snow ball. When the energies were as compressed as he could get them, Yugi let them go, and heard with satisfaction as the men yelled and crumpled to the ground. The shadow magic made no exceptions: it killed everyone Yugi wished dead. _

When it was all over, Yugi could hear nothing except Kaiba's screams and see nothing but the inky darkness of the shadow realm.

* * *

_I'm walking down the line  
That divides me somewhere in my mind  
On the border line  
Of the edge and where I walk alone_

Yugi closed his eyes and slumped to the ground, landing on his knees beside his grandfather's potted plants. He clenched his fists at his knees and bit his lip to keep from crying out in frustration. He couldn't afford to think about that right now, not when his only priority should be to get the Millennium Puzzle back from Gozaburo Kaiba. Yugi forced himself to take deep breaths and force the panic to the back of his mind. He'd have time for that later.

"Yugi, are you okay? It's good to see that you're awake."

The female voice caught him off guard, and when he looked up, Yugi saw Tea standing by the back door. The expression on her face was one of concern, and Yugi could see unshed tears in her eyes. She kneeled beside him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me, you know that right?"

Yugi nodded. "I didn't know you were here," he said.

Tea smiled. "Joey called me and told me you had woken up. I had to come and see for myself that you were okay."

"I'm okay, Tea, and I'm glad you're here."

Tea didn't seem convinced at all by Yugi's words; he could see that in her eyes. Yugi hoped that she wouldn't push the issue, because he was afraid that in his current state, he'd break down and tell her everything.

"We've been friends for a long time, Yugi, and I want to help you now. Please talk to me."

Yugi swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. The offer to unburden himself was very tempting, but there were more important things to worry about at the moment.

"Thank you for the offer, Tea, but there's no time for that now."

Tea frowned and looked like she wanted to say something else, but his grandfather's voice from the back door interrupted her.

"Come in for dinner, you two, you can talk later."

"We'll be there in a minute," Yugi said and watched his grandfather nod and disappear back into the house. "We should probably go in."

Tea nodded. "Yes, we probably should," she said. "I meant what I said, Yugi. If you want to talk, I'm here for you."

Yugi nodded his thanks and walked back to the house, not trusting his voice not to break at any response.

* * *

_Read between the lines  
What's fucked up and everything's alright  
Check my vital signs  
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone_

'Mokuba looked so happy in this picture' Kaiba thought as he examined the picture in his locket, the one taken at the orphanage shortly after they'd been taken there. 'He was still confused about everything that had happened with the family, and he already blindly trusted me, but he was still innocent.'

The look of adoration on Mokuba's face in the picture had always both confused and comforted him. Confused him because even to this day, Kaiba could not understand why Mokuba loved him so much, why he was still so loyal to him, with everything he'd done. There had been times when he hadn't been kind to Mokuba; even times when, while with Gozaburo, he'd struck his little brother, but that hadn't fazed Mokuba. Mokuba had maintained that he loved his big brother and nothing had ever changed that.

'What about now?' Kaiba asked himself. 'Now that Mokuba had suffered one, or maybe more, of Gozaburo's beatings, will he still trust me? Will Mokuba ever be able to look at me or hug me again without flinching and thinking of that same body, those same fists, raining down upon him in anger and violence?'

Kaiba snapped the locket shut and let it drop back onto his chest. He slumped against the wall he'd fallen next to when Gozaburo left his soul room. He hadn't moved from that spot, content to let his thoughts roam free instead. He was so tired. He'd managed to survive the worst parts of his life because he'd had a purpose, someone to defend and protect. He had a goal, a dream, and a reason to get up in the morning and live for another day.

It was different now. He wasn't even in his own body, trapped instead inside a piece of magical jewelry with Yami, an ancient spirit who not only disliked him, but thought him a coward and selfish enough to abandon Yugi when the young man had needed help.

'Maybe Yami is right and I do deserve to be left alone,' Kaiba thought.

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
'Til then I walk alone  
_

The prickling in his nose and eyes annoyed him and he fought to stop the tears from falling, but wasn't able to. Kaiba gave in to them for a second time in who knew how many days and just let them fall. What was the point of pretending that he was strong and in control, when that was the furthest thing from the truth? Who would care, anyway? If he really was strong, what happened in the desert wouldn't have happened, and he wouldn't be sitting here, thinking that it might be best if he just stopped existing. What did he have to live for now, anyway? His brother more than likely hated him, which was fine, because Kaiba already hated himself. His perfectly manufactured illusion that he was indestructible and perfectly capable of defending himself and those he cared for had so effectively been shattered by the bandits in Egypt and by Gozaburo that Kaiba refused to believe in that lie again. He now knew who he really was, and he didn't want to live with that knowledge. It wasn't as if anyone would miss him anyway.

'All I have to do is go to Yami and make him angry enough so that he'll lash out at me. I doubt he'll hesitate if he's provoked enough,' Kaiba thought.

If he were still in his body, ending his life would not be a problem. It wasn't like he hadn't considered it before. Here, however, it was a different story. He didn't know how to destroy his soul in this puzzle, so he'd have to make Yami do it. Kaiba smirked as he wiped the tears off his face. He got to his feet, feeling renewed at finally having a sense of purpose again. He was going to give Yami one last gift, a gift Kaiba was sure Yami would treasure always. He was going to let Yami destroy him.

_I walk this empty street  
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams  
Where the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and _

_I walk alone

* * *

_

"Still locked," Yami growled in frustration and slammed his hand against the door to his soul room.

He rested his back against the door and took a deep breath. He knew that it wouldn't do him any good to get frustrated. However, having the door to his soul room locked reminded him too much of the time he'd spent in darkness, before Yugi had solved the Millennium Puzzle that a part of him wanted to panic at the prospect of doing it again. He had tried spells, force, and everything he could think of to open the door, but nothing had been successful. He had also tried various times to reach Yugi once again, but that had failed as well.

'Yugi must no longer be in possession of the puzzle,' Yami thought with dread. He hoped that the puzzle hadn't been disassembled during their absence from Yugi's time.

He hadn't taken the time to look around the room when he'd first woken up, so he let his eyes roam around the familiar confines of his soul room, the one and only thing that could truly be considered his. The room had always been full of mazes and stairs that led nowhere, but now that he was paying attention to the surroundings, Yami noticed that they appeared colder, a lot less yielding than they had before. The entire room itself seemed darker, the atmosphere seeming to press down on Yami as if resenting his presence in the room. Yami found the new surroundings fitting, considering what he'd just been through. His soul was heavier with what he'd seen and experienced during his brief time in Ancient Egypt, and his soul room now reflected that.

The rattling of the door brought Yami's attention away from the room and back to the door. He looked at it and fought the stab of panic that went through him. Who would be coming through that door this time? Would it be Yugi, Kaiba, or someone else entirely? If it wasn't Yugi or Kaiba, what would he do? Would he fight the new owner of the puzzle, or try to get back to Yugi? His questions were quickly answered when the door swung open to reveal Kaiba standing in front of the door, an icy glare on his face.

Yami was momentarily shocked, not because it was Kaiba that had opened the door, but because of Kaiba's demeanor. The young man stood in front of him with his shoulders squared, his body up to its full height, with determination pouring out of every one of Kaiba's pores. Kaiba was nothing like he had been the last time Yami had seen him, which made Yami wander what had happened in the mean time.

"We need to talk," Kaiba said. He let himself into Yami's room and took a look around, before turning his attention back to Yami. "Nice décor you've got going here, Yami. Did you do it yourself?"

The sarcasm in his voice was not lost on Yami. Kaiba was as angry and confrontational as Yami had ever seen him, which again made him wonder what had happened to change Kaiba's demeanor. Kaiba had come to his soul room with a plan, and Yami had a feeling that he wasn't going to like what Kaiba had in mind.

"What do you want to talk about, Kaiba? As I recall, you were not happy to see me when I contacted you earlier."

Kaiba shrugged. "You surprised me. It's not often that I get a 3,000 Egyptian spirit playing around in my head."

Kaiba stood still and simply watched Yami. Yami wasn't sure what Kaiba was waiting for, but it was apparent from the tense set of his shoulders that he was waiting for something. Yami walked out into the hallway between the soul rooms and took a deep breath. His panic at the possibility of being locked inside his soul room again dissipated, but Yami's worry about Yugi and his inability to contact him flared when Yami saw the door to Yugi's soul room. The fact that the door was still there was a good sign, because it meant that Yugi was still the 'owner' of the puzzle. Yami walked to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. Wherever Yugi was, he was not within the reach of the puzzle.

"I don't think Yugi has the puzzle anymore," Kaiba said from Yami's room.

"How would you know that?" Yami asked.

He turned to face Kaiba, whose demeanor hadn't changed. If Yami had to use one word to describe Kaiba at the moment, 'dead' would come to mind. It was as if the feisty, out spoken and passionate person Kaiba had been was no longer there.

"Gozaburo was in my soul room when I woke up after we had our little conversation," Kaiba volunteered. After taking one more look at Yami's room, Kaiba walked out of it and came to stand in front of Yami. "It is my understanding that only people with

connections to the Millennium Items can manipulate them, correct?"

Yami nodded and something at the back of his mind clicked. "There was a priest in Egypt that looked exactly like Gozaburo, wasn't there?"

Kaiba nodded as well. "I'm surprised you remember seeing him, Yami. After all, you were too busy grieving for Yugi and blaming me for his death."

Anger rose swiftly in Yami at the mention of what happened to Yugi, especially when it came to Kaiba's inability, or unwillingness, to prevent it. He clenched his jaw and his fists, but otherwise remained calm. Kaiba raised an eyebrow at the reaction.

"You really should have been there, Yami. It was your job to protect him, not mine."

"It is common decency to help someone that is in trouble," Yami said, his voice low, but no less deadly. "Then again, I should know better than to expect you to have any human decency at all."

The last sentence should have inflamed Kaiba, but instead, the young man simply stared at Yami. There was no reaction, not even the clenching of fists.

"You've met Gozaburo, Yami. I learned from the best. Besides, there was nothing in it for me. I had nothing to gain by going out of my way to fight Bakura and 'save' Yugi. He's a big boy. Don't you think it's about time he learned to fend for himself?"

Yami was tempted to rush Kaiba, grab him by the front of his shirt and slam him against the nearest wall, but he refrained from giving in to the temptation. He had a nagging feeling that something was going on, but he couldn't put his finger on it just yet.

"Yugi can fend for himself just fine under normal circumstances, Kaiba. Being in Ancient Egypt confronted with bandits and an enraged thief was not normal. It wouldn't have killed you to help him. You have the fighting skills. Bakura would have been no match for you in hand to hand combat."

Kaiba shrugged and crossed his arms. "I wasn't going to waste my time. Yugi got what he deserved, after all. He should have been more careful."

That did it. The little restraint Yami had been holding onto snapped and he rushed Kaiba. He grabbed him by the front of his shirt and slammed him against the wall. He could feel the rush of power from within him and it would take very little to summon it and permanently remove Kaiba from his way. One look at Kaiba, however, changed that. Kaiba wasn't fighting back. His eyes, which were normally full of anger, were dull and dead. His face was expressionless. It was at that moment that Yami realized Kaiba was goading him on purpose. An image of Kaiba, lying on the floor in a fetal position while his emotions swirled around him, came to mind. Yugi wasn't the only one hurt during their trip to Egypt, Kaiba had been as well. The only difference was that Yami knew what happened to Yugi. He didn't know what had happened to Kaiba.

Yami released Kaiba and stepped back so that he was almost touching the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. An emotion flittered through Kaiba's eyes quickly, but not quickly enough to keep Yami from recognizing it: confusion.

"Why are you doing this, Kaiba?"

The emotionless mask Kaiba had been wearing slipped momentarily to reveal the confusion Yami had seen in Kaiba's eyes and something else: desperation. Kaiba wanted Yami to fight him, wanted Yami to… the thought trailed off as Yami realized the extent of the damage done to Kaiba during their trip. He was rendered speechless as things clicked into place, not everything, but enough to give him a picture he didn't want to have, a picture he never thought he'd have for the young man standing before him.

"I won't do it, Kaiba. If you want to end your life, you're going to have to do it on your own."

Kaiba remained silent for a moment. He shifted his eyes so that they were no longer meeting Yami's, and before long, the mask was in place again. Kaiba took a deep breath, released it, and then turned to Yami.

"Gozaburo is probably the reincarnation of that priest, which means he can manipulate the items," Kaiba said, returning to their earlier topic.

Yami stared at Kaiba, surprised at the dismissal of what he'd just tried to do. Yami wasn't sure whether to push the matter further or let it go as Kaiba obviously wanted. He wasn't good at dealing with things like this. He didn't think that he had been, even when he was pharaoh. Having met his past self he was now sure that he had never been good at dealing with Priest Seto, and it was no different now. The topic was definitely going to have to be brought up again, of that Yami was sure. He couldn't let it go, but perhaps it was better to postpone it for now and at least get Kaiba's body back before they started dealing with the repercussions of their trip to Egypt.

"You may have a point. Gozaburo is probably the reason why the door to my soul room was locked, and why the door to Yugi's soul room is locked. If he's playing around in here, he wouldn't want the owners to stand in his way."

"The door to your room wasn't locked when I tried it," Kaiba said.

"It was for me."

Yami paced in front of Kaiba as he thought. Kaiba was the first to break the resulting silence.

"If Gozaburo comes in here again, can we trap him in here and take over my body?"

Yami thought about it.

"If Gozaburo is wearing the puzzle when he comes into it, we could lock him in one of the soul rooms and one of us could take over the body and try to find Yugi and the others. If Yugi has the puzzle Gozaburo can't use it."

Kaiba nodded to himself as his eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Next time Gozaburo comes into the puzzle, I'll lock him in my soul room with me while you take over my body and find Yugi."

Yami raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You want me to take over your body? Doesn't it make more sense for you to do it? I can lock him in my soul room with me as well."

Kaiba smiled, and it raised the hairs on the back of his neck. "Gozaburo likes to play with my head, Yami. I'm sure I'll have no trouble luring him to my soul room. I doubt he'd have a reason to go into yours."

Yami frowned. The logic made sense, but he couldn't help but feel that nagging feeling again, the one he had when Kaiba was goading him. Now that he'd realized Kaiba was suicidal, everything changed. Yami didn't know why, but the thought of Kaiba ending his life disturbed him. It shouldn't have. Yami should be glad to get rid of his adversary, but that wasn't the case. He didn't want Kaiba to kill himself, and the admission left him confused. He felt guilty for Kaiba's experiences in Egypt and responsible for them as well. He had made the mistake that had gotten them sent there in the first place. That wasn't entirely it, however. Yami just could not imagine life without Kaiba somewhere in it as well.

"Well, aren't you going to say something?" Kaiba asked.

What would happen if Kaiba and Gozaburo remained locked in a room for an extended period of time? Yami would be in control of the body, but souls could be destroyed as well. If Yami agreed, would he be returning to find that Kaiba had let Gozaburo destroy his soul as he'd wanted Yami to do? He had to admit that it would be a perfect opportunity to get to Yugi and keep Gozaburo from being able to enter the puzzle anymore, but was he willing to take the risk?

"You know, it's not up to you anyway. I have as much say about what goes on here as you do, seeing as how we're both in the same situation. The next time Gozaburo comes in here, I'm going to keep him in my soul room. The rest is up to you, Yami. I would suggest going through with the plan. You'd have your precious Yugi back that way."

With that, Kaiba turned and walked into his soul room, slamming the door behind him. Yami remained in the hallway for a while, wondering what the hell he'd just been pushed into.

* * *

**Song credit: Boulevard of Broken Dreams, performed by Greenday.** This is a beautiful and very haunting song... it was very appropriate for this story. I heard it for the first time on the radio when I was driving home from work and it immediately made me think of this story. 

::ducks the flying produce she just knows all of you Kaiba fans are going to throw::

Next up: Yugi and the rest get a surprise. Gozaburo and Kaiba duke it out. Someone makes a return appearance. Until next time!


	27. One More Red Nightmare

Greetings! Better late than never, huh? A lot has been going on with me, so writing kind of took a back seat. I got a new job so it's been a bit hectic with getting used to it and all. Midterms in school, but thankfully those are over. I'm on spring break next week so hopefully I'll have a chance to update all of my stories at least once.

* * *

Reviews: 

**Nenya85**: I think that Yami will always have some residual anger about that, no matter what he learns about Kaiba. The fact that Yugi died left a deep wound in his heart, and the raw emotions associated with that incident are always going to be there, lurking in his subconscious. I've written Yami and Kaiba to be confrontational in this story because… well, I had a reason, but I can't think of what it was. It just fits. They don't hate each other, they just have a difference of opinion on just about everything. But that's what makes it harder for either of them to stretch out a hand or meet the other halfway.

Yugi isn't a stranger to sacrifices… but there was something about the fact that it was Kaiba that was making the sacrifice that time, which I doubt Yugi would have expected, that just got to him. I don't think he realized what had happened until that scene, when he's back home and no longer in immediate danger. It's going to be interesting when Kaiba and Yugi meet up again.

Thanks for the lovely review!

**Jade Elemental**: You can never sound too dorky, so don't worry about that. About the changes: I'm going to say no, there were no changes. Yugi and Yami look so much alike that I'd imagine Takahashi-san needing something to distinguish between the two, so Yugi changed a bit, grew taller, changed eye color, etc., when he turned into Yami. Kaiba is completely different, so I saw no need to have any changes. Besides, I thought it'd be really funny to have our lovable little Yugi, wide violet eyes and all, with Kaiba's attitude.

_Also, are we ever going to find out why Yami asked Kaiba if Yugi behaved in bed?_

Did that happen in this story or in _Last Goodbye_? I remember a conversation in LG where Kaiba is speaking to Yami and asks if Yugi has trouble sleeping (or something like that) after Yugi takes Kaiba back to the mansion and they end up in Kaiba's bed (aww, what a cute scene that was. I'm smiling just thinking about it). However, I could have missed something similar in this story. I'm so confused… I should remember, but sadly, I don't.

I'm so happy you like the Kaiba scenes. He's quickly becoming my favorite character so I really enjoy writing them. Thanks for the review!

**Kurosaisei**: Thank you for the review, whether it was a first time or not. Welcome to the crazy world of Kaiba torture. You want Kaiba to die? Seriously… like permanently? Wow… I wonder if anyone else shares your view. I'm glad you like the torture, though and that you don't think I'm insane. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I hope that you continue to do so.

**TwinSanity**: I butcher No Kinen Ni every time I try to say it too, so don't worry. My Japanese accent is horrible. You'd think watching as much Japanese anime as I've watched I would have gotten the accent right by now.

Writing tips, huh? Hmm… I don't think anyone has ever asked me that. I guess it would really depend on what you want to accomplish with your writing, what style you have, what you prefer to write about. E-mail me at and we can talk more about it. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll do what I can. Try to be specific in the subject line of the e-mail. If it's too generic, I won't even open it (for fear of viruses and other bad things attached to emails). I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for the review and best of luck!

**Shloki**: Thank you very much for your kind words! It means a lot to me. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story!

**Nobody really**: We're all somebody to someone, don't you think:o) Ahh, psychic powers, you've got to love them! It's a good song, isn't it? As soon as I heard it, I knew it was a Kaiba song. Yami and Kaiba do make an interesting pair, don't they? If anything, they're never short of surprises. I like the tension they have when they're around each other… it just seems fitting. Thanks for the review!

**Padfootgrl126**: The alerts had been kind of freaky around the time I updated… heck, I think they're freaky half of the time. You're right, Kaiba suicidal is very scary, especially because you know that by the time he gets there, he means business. He'd probably go about his own death as calmly and business like as he does everything else. The issue with Mokuba is going to get complicated… I just love torturing the poor souls, you know.

When Yugi promises something, you know he's not playing around. This particular promise is going to haunt him for a while… poor Yug. Oops… I definitely don't want to go to the shadow realm… maybe I should start rethinking my ending, what do you think? Thanks for the review!

**Miss Sera**: Thanks for the review! I feel honored. I'm glad that you've enjoyed the story. I can't make any promises about how soon I'll update (seeing as how you left the review in January and it's now March) but I will finish the story (or else I have a feeling I'll have many, many threats). Thanks again and I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.

**Really sad person**: Awww… I hope that's not always the case. Or maybe you're just sad for Kaiba. The poor kid does need a hug, doesn't he?

There is a name for what Kaiba was doing (thinking of the rain) while he was being raped: it's called disassociation. It's the only way for a number of people to get through what's happening to them. But you're right, it is really sad. Thanks for reviewing!

**LazerWulf**: Did I say that it wasn't closed to being finished? Well, I might have fibbed a bit…LOL! I'm closer to being finished than I was before… I guess. I still have some stuff to tell, though, so there are still a few chapters left. I can't fix what I've done in just a few chapters, not and make it realistic. I'm glad you're not going to throw anything at me, though. Thanks for the review!

**Mimiheart**: LOL! You're right, who could be suicidal with Yugi around? The ironic thing is that having Yugi around will only make things worse for Kaiba. Yugi is a reminder of what happened to him, after all. Thanks for the review!

**Saiyan Jedi**: Isn't that the way of things these days, that we all have a tendency to keep to ourselves and think we're the only ones going through whatever we're going through? It would save us so much grief (as it would to the characters in the story) if we'd only talk about it. Then again, my characters are so stubborn that they're not going to talk about it.

It's so cool when people say that I've got Kaiba in character. I mean, I've given him horrific circumstances, but it's good to know that he still seems like Kaiba. Lonely Yugi, especially with what he just went through, is not necessarily a good thing. I think his positive thinking reserves have been depleted.

I have never liked the abusive Ryou/Bakura fics where Bakura completely controls Ryou so I've tried to get away from that. I like Ryou as an independent person away from Bakura, which is why I tend to make him a bit stronger and more in charge than most people do. Thanks for the review!

**Trempush**: That's so cool (you yelling at the computer screen when reading, that is)! I think it's one of the best compliments I've ever been given. I do that a lot when I watch TV or a movie, so I know how it makes me feel. I think it's very cool that my story can make you do that. Thanks!

**Honeybear**: Wow, you read the whole thing in one sitting? I'm very impressed, and touched. It's a long one. I think it's up to 300 pages now. Thank you so much for giving the story a try. I'm glad you liked it and I hope that you continue to do so. I'm horrible at e-mailing people to let them know that I've updated. I tried to do that, but I kept forgetting. You can have fanfiction dot net alert you when I post anything, though. It's in your alert settings (I think. I don't use the feature myself. I rely on the review history to keep track of what I'm reading). Thanks again!

**Mutou Yasu**: Poor everyone, huh? The sad thing is that I'm kind of stuck writing sad and angsty stuff. I don't think I could write anything else. At least I can entertain people this way. Thanks for the review!

**A lilmatchgirl**: Kaiba is always strong and stoic, but I've always thought it was all an act. You're right, though, what he endured is enough to make anyone doubt their own self truths and self images. I think that especially with a person like Kaiba, who was always so obsessed with being in control. That's what rape is, after all: control. Ohh, Gozaburo in a bloody, mangled mess. I'll have to determine who gets the pleasure. Any ideas? Thanks for the review!

**Shadowwaker**: Did you find the song? I hope you did… it's a good one. Thank you very much for your comments! You're right, the length of this is partial to a novel… I have a really bad tendency to get carried away sometimes (well, most of the time). Thanks!

**BH**: I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter. Yami is starting to get the picture, but like you said, what happened to Kaiba isn't something that would come to mind for most people. I think it's a bit step that Yami is aware that something happened and determined to find out what it is.

Don't worry about the harassment. I don't mind it too much :o) It's nice to know that the readers miss the story! I do feel bad for the inability to update faster, though. I'm going to start taking the train to work, so hopefully that'll give me a little extra time to work on my stories. Thanks again for the support and I hope that you continue to enjoy the story.

I'm very sorry for the delay, but things just sort of got in the way. Besides, I wouldn't have wanted to be a distraction… school must come first, you know :o). You make an excellent point about Gozaburo. Yes, it would have made more sense for Seto to take over his own body, but neither Seto nor Yami are thinking clearly at that point. Besides that, Seto is still suicidal so of course he's going to want to be trapped with Gozaburo. While Yami can remove a soul, there is a reason why he can't remove Gozaburo's. That will be explained in a little while.

Another good point you made was about them dealing with the mental issues before Seto got his body back. I can't say much without spoiling the chapters to come (this one and the next one, I believe) but I'll just say that dealing with the issues isn't going to be very cut and dry, but it will have to be done.

Professors tend to get very nervous these days when they see drawings like the one you described, even when they're not drawn to be serious. So much has happened with teenagers lately that it gets people edgy.

Thank you for your wonderfully insightful reviews. You made me think about a lot of things that are coming up, so I'm grateful for that. I hope that you ended up getting your essay written regardless of all the distractions.

**Kelkale**: Hello there and welcome to the insanity! Okay, maybe not insanity but overwhelming depression. I'm glad that you're enjoying the story. Yugi's secret won't stay secret forever (neither will Kaiba's for that matter), but it's going to take some time to get either of them (or both) to come to grips with what happened enough to be able to tell someone else. Thanks for leaving a review!

**Hobbit13**: LOL! Gozaburo is having a good week, a good month, a good second life… and after you read this chapter, you'll see that his luck just keeps getting better.

I don't think he realizes or understands anything about friendships. He thinks friends are useless, or in the best of times, just people to use. He'd definitely underestimated Ryou's desire for friendships and his allegiance to those he deems as friends. However, Ryou is attached to Bakura and, in a way, is loyal to him too and cares about him. Hence, poor Ryou is confused and uncertain of what to do.

Tea is a character that is easy for me to forget about, so I tend not to write her. You're right, Tea would be a good person for Yugi to talk to. They have their long friendship to go on, and I think that Yugi feels comfortable with her. Who knows? I don't even know how's its all going to happen. I'll find out when it gets written. About Kaiba: Yup, Egypt shook him up badly and he has no clue what to do now. He's relying on his instinctual self destruction, but I don't think anyone is going to let him destroy himself at this point. Thanks for the lovely review!

**Rekkanotara**: Songs are good only if used sparingly… unless you just have excellent technique and can incorporate them well. Since I don't, I use them only once in a while. I once read a story, I think it was a Ryou centered story, where each chapter had a song. It was so well written that it wasn't annoying to have so many songs. I can't remember the name of it now.

**ANAYAS-CREATER**: Gozaburo has been warned… I'm afraid he's going to get his way for a little while longer, though. You might want to keep sharpening that glaive. Thanks for reviewing!

**Susaku**: Aww, you're so sweet! Your enthusiasm put a big smile on my face. I'm sorry I couldn't honor your request to update fast, but I hope you're still interested in the fic. Thanks for the kind words.

**Nakitakunaruno**: Thank you very much for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

**Aura Black Chan**: You're right, everyone needs some comforting right about now. It's a shame that they're all so stubborn and don't want to talk to anyone or ask for help. Thanks for reviewing!

**Bayleef**: Don't hurt yourself now… I'd hate to be responsible with any brain damage. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thanks for the review!

**Dolphinsaturngir**l:happily snacking on chocolate millennium puzzle: I'm glad you're enjoying the story and I hope that you continue to do so. Thanks for the review!

**Silver Dragon Golden Dragon**: Kaiba has an awful lot of songs that fit him, that's why he's such a great character. Thanks for the review.

**Sphinx12**: You're absolutely right, Kaiba's strength is usually a mast that he's spent most of his life perfecting. The reason I wrote what I wrote regarding him is that I wanted to explore what happened to him when that mask was broken and he was forced to be vulnerable and ask for help. I hope that I do the issue justice. Thank you for reviewing.

* * *

Whew! I seem to have gotten very wordy with my replies this time. My apologies. I'm currently listening to Greenday's _American Idiot_. It's an awesome CD. A few of the songs fit this story, so I might be using them later on. 

An explanation of the chapter title: _One More Red Nightmare_, to those of you who are Rurouni Kenshin fans and have seen the OVA _Reflections (__Seisouhen_), is the song that's playing when Kenshin and Enishi fight on the beach. It's an incredible song, and I was listening to it when I started to write the chapter.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Part 27: One More Red Nightmare**

Yami was still in the hallway between soul rooms long after Kaiba had retreated to his. He was trying to piece together the bizarre conversation/fight he'd just had with Kaiba. It wasn't like Kaiba to give into anger like he had, and it wasn't like Yami to be goaded into a fight either, especially by Kaiba. The teenager had tried to goad him many times before during their many duels, but Yami had never given in to the temptation before. The fact that he had this time told him how out of sorts he was from the unexpected trip into his past. The images of that time, as well as the emotions that had been caused by the whole ordeal were still fresh in Yami's mind, and he had a feeling that they would be for a very long time. That was no reason to give in to anger, however, not at a time like this.

Kaiba's earlier words, which had been spoken in an eerie, matter of fact tone that Yami was becoming all too familiar with, sent shivers down Yami's spine.

"_You know, it's not up to you anyway. I have as much say about what goes on here as you do, seeing as how we're both in the same situation. The next time Gozaburo comes in here, I'm going to keep him in my soul room. The rest is up to you, Yami. I would suggest going through with the plan. You'd have your precious Yugi back that way."_

Tendrils of guilt worked their up Yami's spine when he remembered the way he'd treated Kaiba when they'd found Yugi dead in the Egyptian desert. He'd been blinded by his grief and anger at the situation to notice that Kaiba had been injured as well, injured perhaps beyond repair. He closed his eyes and recalled the look that momentarily crossed Kaiba's face as Yami had shoved him away from Yugi's body, a look that spoke of a bitter betrayal and an acceptance of something he knew to be a fact, but had hoped against hope wouldn't be. That vision was replaced by a vision of the same momentary look as he'd held Kaiba against the wall of his soul room, as Kaiba had been goading him into ending his life. Yami shuddered at the thought. Kaiba's ordeal in Egypt had destroyed something in the teenager, something that Yami hadn't realized Kaiba still possessed. Yami had been so absorbed in Kaiba's cold image to remember the fact that Kaiba was just a teenager. No matter how cold and how ruthless Kaiba acted, there had to have been something in the core of his being, something that Kaiba had still held intact and away from the mess his life had become. Something he'd guarded with everything he was, something that was more important to him than money, power, or winning duels. Kaiba's experiences in Ancient Egypt had shattered this piece of Kaiba beyond repair, which now left Kaiba with death as his only option.

"What happened back there?" Yami asked the silence around him, not for the first time.

He was more certain than ever that he did not want Kaiba to die. He felt responsible as well, because it had been his past reality that had done this to Kaiba. He would not have imagined ever seeing Kaiba like he was now. Before their trip to Egypt, Yami would have imagined feeling pleasure at catching Seto Kaiba in a vulnerable position and would have not given a second thought to exploiting that weakness. Now, however, the only thought going through his mind was finding out what happened, and then finding a way to fix it. He didn't want to take advantage of Kaiba's vulnerability. Instead, he wanted to treasure it, to see it for what it was and to do what he could to protect Kaiba from Gozaburo, and himself.

Yami was confused and torn between warring sets of emotions and thoughts. He had to get to Yugi. His partner had always been better at dealing with this sort of emotional thing. Besides, Yugi did know what happened to Kaiba. Yami was going to have a long talk with Yugi once they were reunited about what went on while he and Kaiba had been separated from the rest of them.

A presence behind him made Yami turn around and come face to face with a man he'd seen before and yet had never met.

"You must be the spirit of the pharaoh," the man said.

"You must be Gozaburo Kaiba," Yami replied. "You're trespassing. This puzzle does not belong to you."

The man laughed, and his laugh was not unlike Kaiba's own. Yami could immediately tell where a lot of Kaiba's mannerisms had come from.

"The puzzle is in my possession, therefore I own it."

"You stole it," Yami corrected. "What did you do to the boy that wore the puzzle?"

Gozaburo took a few steps closer to Yami. "Oh, that kid? He's gone. I got rid of him."

Yami's jaw clenched at the implied action. "You lie. If Yugi were dead, we would not be standing here right now."

Gozaburo inclined his head a fraction. "I must give you credit, Pharaoh. You are smarter than I thought you'd be. You're not unlike my adoptive son, Seto. You're both stubborn. Like him, however, your stubbornness will lead to your downfall."

"Don't you get tired of spouting the same old stuff? You'd think that all of that time in the computer would have enhanced your vocabulary."

Yami turned to see Kaiba standing at the door of his soul room, sneering.

"Your insolence is amusing, Seto. Don't forget that you are still my adoptive son. I should teach you some discipline."

Kaiba's sneer actually grew. "Why don't you?" Kaiba challenged. "I think you've gotten too old to be effective. I'm not a little kid anymore, Gozaburo. You don't scare me anymore."

Gozaburo laughed. "We'll see about that."

Yami could see it already. Kaiba was doing the same thing to Gozaburo that he'd done to Yami. He was goading Gozaburo into a fight and Yami doubted that Gozaburo would mind killing Kaiba. Kaiba's gaze shifted to Yami, and Yami could see in Kaiba's eyes the subtle reminder to go with the flow and get the plan underway. Yami was afraid of leaving them alone. If he locked Kaiba and Gozaburo in Kaiba's soul room, would he return to find that only Gozaburo was left? His only hope was that Gozaburo could not manipulate the puzzle enough to destroy Kaiba's soul.

"What are you two planning?"

Gozaburo's question brought Yami out of his musings. He felt Gozaburo's energy departing, which snapped him out of his daze and made the decision for him.

"Damn it, Yami!"

Kaiba shouted at the same time that Yami manipulated the puzzle to send Gozaburo into Kaiba's soul room.

Lock us in here!

Kaiba's mental shout reverberated through Yami's mind so loud that he didn't have time to contemplate the fact that Kaiba had opened the link between them and left it open.

You better not be dead when I get back, Kaiba. If you are, I swear I'll hunt you down in the afterlife

With that, Yami locked Kaiba's soul room. He had a limited amount of time, so he wasted none of it willing himself into Kaiba's body. The thought that Kaiba would be much better suited for doing this, since Gozaburo was using Kaiba's body, and Kaiba knew his body better than anyone else, once again rushed through Yami's mind. He dismissed it as soon as it appeared, however, since he didn't have time for doubts now.

When he opened his eyes, Yami found himself sitting on a chair in what looked like an office, with the puzzle clutched in his right hand. Yami put the chain around his neck and let the puzzle fall against his chest, the weight reassuring. He got up and almost lost his balance. Kaiba's body was taller than Yugi's, which threw Yami off for a moment. Once he'd gotten himself situated in this new body, Yami frowned as brown hair fell into his eyes. Annoyed, he brushed it out of the way, only to have it fall over his eyes again. Yami left it alone and looked down at himself. Gozaburo had been wearing something very unlike what Kaiba would wear, so Yami decided that the first thing to do was change into something Yugi and the gang would recognize Kaiba in. To do that, he'd have to find Kaiba's room first.

Yami stopped at the doorway to the office and looked at the hallway beyond. He'd never been to Kaiba's mansion before and had no idea where anything was. To his right, there was a dead end with a window, so Yami walked to the window and looked out at the garden outside. He was downstairs, which was at least telling him something. To his left, there was a long hallway, and Yami decided to go that way. His footsteps reverberated through the silent hallway and Yami hoped that he wouldn't run into anyone else. He doubted that the staff cared much about their master, but he still didn't want to raise suspicion.

At the end of the hallway he found a grand room, which he realized was the entrance hall to the mansion. There was a large staircase leading to the upper floor, while other rooms branched off behind the staircase. The room was beautiful and reminded Yami of the Egyptian castle they'd been in a while ago. Kaiba knew how to live in style. Yami had made it to the staircase when a voice stopped him.

"Mr. Kaiba, what would you like me to prepare for lunch, sir?"

Yami turned to see a small, pudgy woman standing by one of the doors behind the staircase. She was dressed in white and held herself stiff and at attention. The expression on her face wasn't necessarily one of fear, but it was one of reservation and distance.

"I won't be eating," Yami said, and the sound of his words in Kaiba's voice caught him off guard for a moment. It was going to take him a while to get used to this body. "I need to go out."

The woman nodded. "Would you like me to inform the butler to get the car ready, then?" she asked.

"Yes, I would. Thank you," Yami added.

The woman nodded once again and walked back the way she'd come, leaving Yami standing by the staircase. He could do this. He'd been pharaoh, after all, and had servants of his own. He could surely deal with Kaiba's staff for a little while. He took a breath, released it and walked quickly upstairs.

He began opening doors at random, not caring who saw him. He didn't have time to take things slowly. He risked peeking at the link with Kaiba and wished he hadn't as a burst of anxiety rushed over the link to paralyze him momentarily. It was almost a childish kind of fear, and Yami could understand it at once. Gozaburo was Kaiba's adoptive father and had a lot to do with shaping and influencing who Kaiba was today. Whatever methods Gozaburo had used to achieve that had to have been horrifying for the young Kaiba, and were probably still ingrained in Kaiba's mind. Yami had to complete his mission and get Kaiba out of that room as soon as possible.

Yami was almost to the end of the upstairs hallway when he ran into what he assumed was Mokuba's bedroom. The room was immaculate, of course, but there were signs here and there that told who the occupant was: a backpack by the desk, a gaming controller on the bed, a deck of Duel Monster cards on the desk. Yami smiled and left the room. He opened the next door and found yet another bedroom. He didn't know why, as there were no signs of the occupant in what Yami could see of the room, but he knew this was Kaiba's room. Yami went inside and shut the door behind him. The room was immaculate, as Mokuba's had been, but unlike Mokuba's there were very few signs in this room that it was even occupied. The only thing was a laptop computer sitting open on one of the nightstands. This had to be the room, especially since it was next to Mokuba's.

Yami walked deeper into it and saw a smaller hallway that led to the bathroom. Yami looked around the bathroom but didn't find a closet. The bathroom mirror, however, caught his attention. Yami stood in front of it, staring at his reflection. It was odd to see Kaiba reflected back at him, when he was used to seeing himself in Yugi. He raised a hand and ran it through Kaiba's dark brown hair and smiled ruefully as the hair settled on Kaiba's forehead once again. The blue eyes were not as icy now that Yami inhabited the body. They were a bit softer, less severe, which Yami hoped would help him convince Yugi and the others that he was not Gozaburo.

As he was walking out of the room, a door to his left caught his attention. Yami slid it open and smiled when a room full of clothing revealed itself to him.

"It's about time," Yami said and walked inside the room.

He turned on the light and stood in the center of the room, wondering what clothing he needed to wear. What did Kaiba usually wear? Yami rifled through the clothing until he found something he remembered Kaiba wearing, minus the signature coat. A little bit of searching later led him to a rack full of coats, and Yami selected the purple one Kaiba had been wearing at Duelist Kingdom. Within a few minutes, Yami was dressed. He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror again and nodded in satisfaction when he saw that Kaiba looked exactly like he had at Duelist Kingdom. He was ready to go. He just hoped that this would be enough to convince his friends that he was not Gozaburo Kaiba.

Downstairs at the main entrance, he found a car waiting for him. As soon as he'd left the house, the driver stepped out of the car and walked around to open the door for him. Yami got inside the car and waited for the driver to do the same.

"What's your destination, Mr. Kaiba?" the man asked as he pulled away from the mansion.

"The Moto's game shop," Yami said and hoped that the driver knew where it was, because if he asked Yami, Yami would have no idea what to say.

"Very well."

Yami sighed in relief that the driver knew where they were going and settled in for the drive. Yami was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the passage of time or the passing scenery. It wasn't until the driver spoke again that Yami realized they'd arrived.

"We've arrived, Mr. Kaiba. Would you like me to wait outside for you?"

"That won't be necessary," Yami said and got out of the car.

He wondered how Kaiba was doing with his end of the plan and opened the link between them a little bit, just to check on Kaiba's state of mind. As soon as he'd done so, Yami felt a wave of emotion hit him. Kaiba was anxious and very agitated. He couldn't see more without risking distracting Kaiba from whatever he was doing, but that little bit was enough to get the point across, once again, that he had to get to Yugi and get Kaiba put back in his body as soon as he could.

Yami walked to the door of the game shop and considered how to approach it. Whoever saw him would mistake him for Gozaburo, so he was prepared for animosity. He didn't want to frighten anyone, however, which was why he was standing right outside the door, thinking of ways he could make the people inside believe that he was Yami and not Gozaburo. He was so caught up in his thoughts that by the time he realized the front door had opened, he'd been tackled to the ground. Yami struggled against the weight pinning his head down and as he thrashed, caught a glimpse of blonde hair.

"Joey, its Yami!" he yelled, fighting Joey off as much as he could.

He managed to push the teenager off of him and send him crashing into the nearest wall. Joey looked at him, rage clear in his face, and lunged at him. Yami reacted instinctively, grabbed Joey's arm, and twisted it behind the blonde's back. When the move had been executed Yami wondered where it had come from. He didn't know any modern fighting techniques, after all.

"Listen to me, Joey. I am not Gozaburo. He is currently trapped in the puzzle with Kaiba. I am Yami and I need to speak to Yugi at once."

Joey groaned and tried to pull away from Yami, but Yami held on tight.

"How do we know you're not lying?"

Yami turned to see Mokuba staring fearfully at him. The young man had stepped out of the house and was standing just in front of the door. "How do we know?" Mokuba repeated the question.

"Ask me something that only I would know," Yami said to Mokuba, but meant for the response to be heard by the people that Yami could now see standing behind Mokuba as well.

"During Battle City, in the helicopter when you, my brother, and I were on our way to the docks to find Joey, you told Seto that friends were worth keeping as long as they had something to give in return," Mokuba said. "Do you remember that?"

Yami nodded. "I remember the ride and the conversation, but I don't remember having said that, Mokuba," Yami replied. "Your brother asked me if Joey, or any of my friends, were worth losing my life over. I replied that yes, they were, because without friendships, there was no reason to live." Yami paused and met the eyes of everyone he could see. He released Joey, who immediately took a defensive stand in front of him. "I also remember letting Yugi duel with Joey on his own, at the risk of his own life, because he valued their friendship enough to risk it."

Joey's eyes slowly lost their rage, which relieved Yami a great deal. He didn't want to fight anyone, especially not his friends.

"Yami?"

The tentative voice caught Yami's attention and he turned towards the source. Yugi was standing beside Mokuba now, a look of confusion on his face.

"Why are you in Kaiba's body?"

Yami clenched his jaw at the anger and uncharacteristic worry that surfaced when he thought of the reason why he was in the body and not Kaiba himself.

"It's part of Kaiba's plan," Yami finally said. "He had me lock him and Gozaburo in his soul room so I'd have enough time to come to you. We have to get him out of there, though. He's not faring so well."

Mokuba's face lost its color at the mention of his brother, which made the assorted bruises stand out even more. Yami was curious as to how the younger Kaiba had been hurt, but he had other things to worry about right now. He'd ask about Mokuba later.

"How are you going to do that, Yami?" Joey asked.

"I memorized the spell from the High Priest's spell book," Yami replied. "I can recite the spell now and get rid of Gozaburo. Before I do that, you have to take the puzzle, Yugi. Let's give Kaiba his body back, and then you and I can deal with Gozaburo in the puzzle."

Yugi nodded. "I'm going to open the link with Kaiba and let him know what we're going to do, okay?"

When Yugi nodded again, Yami opened the link with Kaiba and gasped at the amount of emotion flooding it. Kaiba wasn't blocking the link; he'd just left it wide open. The anxiety had grown to outright fear, but there was an undercurrent of satisfaction in the emotion. Yami hated to think what that satisfaction could be for.

:Kaiba:

After a little while, Yami managed to catch Kaiba's attention.

:I'm not finished here, YamiKaiba replied. Leave me alone:

:I'm not going to let you kill yourself while in my puzzle, do you understand? I'm going to give you the body back. You can do whatever you want with it then.:

Anger flooded through the link now as well as disappointment, but Yami didn't care. He said he wasn't going to be a part of Kaiba's demise and he meant it.

"On the count of three, Yugi, you take the puzzle off of Kaiba's neck."

"Okay."

Yami kneeled so that Yugi could easily slip the puzzle off Kaiba's neck.

On the count of three Kaiba, ready or notYami said through the link.

"One," Yami said, and repeated that in his mind for Kaiba, "two… three!"

Yugi gripped the puzzle and pulled it off of Kaiba's neck. The last thing Yami remembered was a scream. Whether the scream had come from outside of the body or from the link with Kaiba, he didn't know.

* * *

When Kaiba came to, he was lying face down on the warm cement. He could see feet around him and hear voices, but for a moment, couldn't quite figure out where he was. 

"Did it work? Yug, are you okay?"

Kaiba got to his hands and knees and suddenly realized that he was outside, back in his own body. He looked at himself and saw that he was dressed in his purple trench coat, not the white one he'd been wearing when they'd left for their insane journey to Egypt. He was finally alone inside his head, which was both a relief, and frightening. He got to his feet and the first person he saw was Mokuba. His brother was standing a few feet away from him, watching. The boy's face was bruised, and Kaiba's anger at what Gozaburo had done immediately rose. Instinctively, he rushed to Mokuba to inspect the damage up close, but stopped dead in his tracks when Mokuba flinched and took a step back. Kaiba gasped in shock and his hands, which had been outstretched to touch his brother's face, dropped heavily to his sides. Tears prickled at the back of his eyes, but he fought them off.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba," Kaiba managed to choke out. "I never meant for this to happen."

Mokuba shook himself out of his momentary fear, and took a step towards Kaiba.

"Big brother, is that you?"

A smile suddenly lit his face and he stepped towards Kaiba, his arms outstretched to give his big brother a hug. It was Kaiba who stepped away this time.

"Stay away from me, Mokuba. You have every right to fear me."

"I don't fear you, brother, I'm just glad you're okay!" Mokuba said.

"You're better off with Yugi and the rest of them anyway; I can't do anything for you anymore."

Kaiba turned to walk away when Yugi's cry stopped him. He'd forgotten that Gozaburo was still in the puzzle and that Yami was going to destroy the soul. He turned back to find Yugi being supported by Joey, who looked very scared.

"Yug, are you okay? What's going on?"

Yugi's eyes were shut and his hands were clenched around the puzzle. His face had gone white and he seemed to barely be keeping himself standing. As Kaiba stood there, a bright light surrounded Yugi. A flash threw both Yugi and Joey back against the wall, and then a small ball of energy left the puzzle. The ball then sank to the ground, where it grew until it was the shape of a human male. The body was completely naked, and when the light had disappeared, Kaiba found himself staring at a living, breathing, Gozaburo Kaiba. Before he could react, Gozaburo's eyes opened and the man stood up. He glared at Kaiba, and then took off running down the street. Kaiba stared after him, unsure of what he'd just witnessed.

What the hell had they just done?

* * *

High Priest Seto stood outside the cell Kha had been in before he'd been sent to wonder the shadow realm for all eternity. He wondered if he'd done the right thing. It would have been more permanent to have just killed the man, but that punishment would not have been severe enough for what he'd tried to do. Sealing the man's soul and cursing him to live in the shadow realm for all eternity had seemed like a good plan at the time, but now he wondered if it hadn't been more dangerous to do that. If, somehow, Kha managed to free himself of the shadow realm, he could be reborn again and do even more damage. Having seen the reincarnations of both himself and the pharaoh, Seto wondered if it were not possible for Kha to do the same. The man was a powerful magician, after all, powerful enough to wield the Millennium Rod. Had he made a mistake in sealing Kha's soul, forcing the soul to remain whole no matter what was done to it? 

"It is late for you to be in the dungeons by yourself, Seto."

Priest Seto turned to see Priest Akunadin standing a few feet away from him. His first reaction was to ask the questions that had been going through his head since he'd found Akunadin with Yugi, but Seto held his tongue. Akunadin was his superior, after all, and deserved his respect and his loyalty. There was a part of him, however, that balked at the forced formality. It was this part that won out and made him ask his question anyway.

"Why did you torture Yugi? What did you have to gain by forcing him to be the pharaoh?"

Akunadin smiled gently, almost as a father would to a son. "It was for you, Seto. It was in your best interest for me to control the pharaoh. You have said that you wanted an opportunity to prove yourself, to rule this country in a way that you saw fit. I was merely providing you with that opportunity."

"Ruling this country and being pharaoh is not my birthright, Priest Akunadin. I have come to accept that. I serve my pharaoh in the best way I can. I may not always agree, but it does not mean that I will go against his wishes."

Akunadin raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Are you telling me that no matter what the pharaoh does, what he asks of you, you will not disobey?"

Priest Seto nodded. "He is my pharaoh and I owe him nothing less."

Akunadin sighed and left the dungeon. Priest Seto watched him leave and then made his way back to his now empty rooms. Once he got there, his eyes immediately fell on the strange, white, garment that had been left behind by his double. He picked it up and examined it, as he'd done dozens of times before. He didn't miss the damage that had been done to it, nor the blood that saturated it. Once again, his thoughts returned to his double and what he'd suffered at the hands of the bandits. Priest Seto had no doubt of what had been done to his double, because Hori had been very explicit in his threats against the priest when they'd crossed paths. Seto shuddered at the though of having to go through what Hori had threatened to do to him, and his heart felt heavy because his double, who had nothing to do with Hori and the situation, had been the one to pay the price.

Priest Seto had been meaning to go to the bandit's camp and see the scene for himself, but had not had a chance to do so. He would take some time tomorrow and go visit the camp. He was hoping to find something there, something that might tell him that his fears were unfounded; that Hori hadn't done to his double what he'd threatened to do to him.

Seto could only hope that his double had been spared that humiliation and that pain.

* * *

And the plot thickens, again... I swear, this is one of the last surprises I have in store... I think. 

**Next up**: Insane Gozaburo on the lose… what else can you ask for?


	28. Paint the Sky with Stars

Greetings! No, you're not imagining things, this is actually a chapter. It's a longer chapter too, almost twice the length of my usual ones. I figured that since there was so much time in between postings, the least I could do was make my chapters longer.

Everyone, please thank BH for this chapter. No one can make me feel as guilty about not posting as she can, even though I have a feeling that she gets a lot more homework done when I don't post anything. BH, thank you for reminding me (none too gently) that I was being a lazy bum. Shadowwaker gets a lot of credit for the chapter too, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Shadowwaker, artist extraordinaire that she is, drew a beautiful fanart for this story. I was giddy with excitement when I got it, since it's a wonderful representation of this story. I think she captured the essence of the main characters and their predicament beautifully, and it was great inspiration for this chapter. I want all of you to go take a look at it. Leave her a comment as well and let her know what you think of her artwork. The fanart can be found at DeviantArt. I'm going to post the link here and hope that ff dot net doesn't eat it. It'll be on my bio page as well.

Here you go: www . deviantart . com / deviation / 16637236 /

Thank you, as always, for all the reviews. I'm glad to see that new people are picking up the story and that continuing readers still have enough patience not to loose interest. I'm very grateful. Now, enjoy the chapter.

* * *

**Part 28: Paint the Sky with Stars**

Gozaburo Kaiba stumbled through the streets of Domino, confused and desperate to get out of sight. It had come as such a surprise to suddenly find himself with a body of his own that the only thing he could think of was to run, before the vengeful spirit of the Millennium Puzzle realized he'd made a mistake and took the body back. The fact that he was buck naked hadn't materialized until he realized that the people he passed on the street were pointing at him and calling him names. He had never cared about what people thought of him, but the name calling usually followed something he had done or said, so he'd ducked into an alley to figure out what was going on. He'd felt unusually chilly and had looked down at himself, only to almost fall over with embarrassment at the fact that he'd been running through the streets of Domino in his birthday suit. He didn't have much of a choice, however, because he had to keep going. He couldn't immediately go back to his mansion, because he was pretty sure that Seto would head there first. He had to formulate a plan to get rid of his nuisance of an adoptive son before he could go back to his home. For now, a substitute home base would have to do.

Fortunately for him, a man was working further down the alley, apparently taking out trash from one of the restaurants on that street. Gozaburo snuck behind him and knocked the man into the wall, immediately knocking him out. The man was wearing simple, work clothes, but that was better than nothing, so Gozaburo took the man's pants and coat and made his way out of the other side of the alley. He had no money, so he couldn't pay for a cab to his destination. He was going to have to do it the old fashioned way and walk.

He still hadn't fully been able to digest what had happened. For some insane, crazy, and completely unexpected reason, he had a body again. It wasn't Seto's body, it was his own. The body he now possessed wasn't as weak and ill as his own had been before he'd been forced to deposit his mind into the mainframe. No, it was healthy, vigorous, and about ten years younger than it had been the last time he'd inhabited it. He had no idea how he'd come to posses it, but at this point, he didn't care. He had to get it together and plan his next move, but now that he wasn't walking around in Seto's body anymore, he didn't have the control and power that came with being Seto Kaiba. Gozaburo Kaiba had been dead for the past six years, so he couldn't walk into Kaiba Corp. as himself and hope to be recognized or acknowledged. He was going to have to come up with another plan if he hoped to continue what he had started while inhabiting Seto's body. He had to get back into Kaiba Corp., had to get there and establish himself before Seto got his wits together enough to return, and he knew just how to do so.

Gozaburo entered the modern apartment building he'd been heading towards, bypassed the elevator and chose instead to take the stairs to the fourth floor. He took the stairs two at a time, eager to break in his new body. He felt alive, as he hadn't since he'd been a young man, and the sheer joy of moving was exhilarating. Once he reached the floor, he ran to the end of the hallway and knocked on the door to apartment 492. He hadn't called ahead, so he hoped that the person he'd come to see was home.

He shouldn't have worried. A few minutes later, the door opened. As soon as the occupant of the apartment saw him, his eyes widened and his mouth opened in surprise. They stood there, on either side of the door, gaping at each other for a few minutes, until the apartment's occupant grabbed Gozaburo by the arm and pulled him inside.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on or do you expect me to guess?" the owner of the apartment said as he shut and locked the door behind them. The man leaned against the door, as if he expected Gozaburo to want to leave again right away.

Gozaburo walked fully into the living room and sat down on the nearest couch. "I'll be glad to tell you what I know, but I would like to get into some decent clothes first."

The man glanced at what Gozaburo wore, his eye brows raising in amusement at the dirty, torn, and ragged pants and coat.

"You've stepped down a few notches, I would say," the man said and left the living room. When he came back, he held a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt.

"These aren't your style or fit for your stature, Gozaburo, but it's all I have that will fit you."

Gozaburo took the offered clothes quickly. "Don't worry, Edward. I won't be wearing these for very long."

Edward Hawkeye shrugged and motioned for Gozaburo to go into the bathroom to change. Gozaburo did so quickly. When he exited the bathroom, he made his way to the liquor cabinet that Edward kept at one end of the living room. After pouring himself a drink, he settled back down on the couch facing Edward.

Edward had been Gozaburo's right hand man and accomplice for many years, up until Noa had been tragically killed in that car accident. After that, Edward had sited health problems and a desire to take it easy for a while and gone back to his native England. The two had kept in touch, and when Gozaburo had hatched his desperate plan to prolong his life and had needed an accomplice, he'd called on Edward. As always, the man had not disappointed. He'd moved back to Japan and had continued his work as Gozaburo's right hand man, even when Gozaburo had supposedly died of a heart attack. Edward was the only man who had known that Gozaburo hadn't died, that he'd deposited his mind into the mainframe instead. Edward had kept Gozaburo informed of everything that was going on, including what his brat of an adoptive son had done with his company. It was because of Edward's information that Gozaburo had been eager to someday get out of that computer and reclaim what was his. When he'd been ready, it was Edward that had delivered the message that had brought Seto to the lab.

"Do you remember that Egyptian book?"

Edward had to think about it for a moment, before he nodded. "You mean that one the crazy native sold you when you took Noa to Cairo that summer? The one he claimed had magical powers?"

Gozaburo laughed at his friend's disbelief.

"The native wasn't crazy, Edward. I'm here because of the magical powers of that book," Gozaburo explained. "I don't know how it's possible, but my body has been magically restored. I didn't do it myself, and I don't think that the person who did it meant to do it, but either way, here I am. I plan on taking full advantage of the opportunity."

Edward got a bit closer to Gozaburo, carefully inspecting the man's features. Edward put a hand on Gozaburo's shoulder and recoiled when he touched real flesh.

"What's the matter, Edward, say something," Gozaburo said. He stretched out, luxuriating in the feel of his own muscle and bone stretching and popping as he moved. "You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Edward dropped back down onto the couch and ran his hand through his silver hair. "The last time I saw you, you were a soulless, mindless body. I buried you, remember? I told your adoptive sons that you were dead and watched as they took everything you'd worked hard for and threw it away. It's a bit hard to accept that you're here, sitting in front of me, fully alive again."

"That's all changed, Edward. I am back and better than ever."

Edward stared at Gozaburo for a while more, before nodding, as if telling himself that it was reality he was looking at and not some sort of weird hallucination. Gozaburo could only imagine that thoughts going on inside the man's head.

"What about your adoptive sons?" Edward finally asked.

Gozaburo shrugged. "I don't think they'll be much of a problem," Gozaburo said and after a short pause added "Seto's lost his will to live." Gozaburo paused again as he said that. "It makes me wonder what bastard finally managed to accomplish something I never could. Nothing I ever did to him broke him, but something apparently has."

"What makes you say that?" Edward asked, curiosity apparent on his face. Edward had never liked Seto, so it was no surprise that hearing about Seto's potential downfall had the man interested.

"The last conversation I had with him," Gozaburo said, thinking back to the look of hopelessness he'd caught in Seto's eyes a few times during the conversation. "He was vile and he insulted me, as always, and played the part of a rebellious teenager well, but I know him… I made him, after all, and I could tell that it was all an act. The anger and hatred he was spewing were simply words coming out of his mouth; the feelings didn't reach his eyes anymore. Something's been broken in him, and I think I'm going to make it my business to find out what it is."

Edward raised an eyebrow. "Is that going to be your first priority?"

Gozaburo downed the remainder of his drink before he replied. "Of course not. As much as Seto's suffering appeals to me, there are more important things to take care of first. I assume that you still have those Kaiba Corporation board members in your pocket." When Edward nodded, Gozaburo continued speaking. "I need to be reinstated at Kaiba Corporation."

"As yourself?" Edward asked. "That's going to be hard, considering that you're supposed to be dead."

"People can be fooled and they can be bought," Gozaburo replied, a predatory smile on his face. "I don't have to visibly run the company. Hell, I may even be able to convince Seto to do it for me if I play my cards right. For now, all I need is the access and the power to follow through on the deals I've already started to make."

"I doubt Seto is going to be willing to do anything for you, Gozaburo, as much as I doubt that he'd be willing to relinquish control of a company he's run for the past six years. That boy despises you. I doubt he'd do anything you ask him to."

"Maybe, maybe not. The world is full of possibilities, Edward. For now, I need for you to get the board to reinstate me and give me control of the company. I have already approached some of our old contacts and they are willing to do business with us again. Seto's weapon designs are in the mainframe where my mind rested, so we can build everything again from scratch if need be.

"What do you plan on doing about Seto? He's running the company now," Edward pointed out. "He's not going to roll over and let you step all over him."

"Seto is still a child, Edward. All we have to do is get the Kaiba Corporation board of directors to get rid of him."

"That will be hard," Edward said. "Half of the board is loyal to him, Gozaburo."

"People can always be bought, no matter how loyal. Loyalty has a price, don't forget that. I don't care how you do it, but get it done."

* * *

Gozaburo is alive… Gozaburo has his own body now… Gozaburo is no longer something to be dismissed as a figment or a bad dream… Gozaburo is now a very real, and very lose, threat. 

Kaiba tried to get that stupid little mantra out of his head, but he couldn't. He suddenly felt like a child, afraid that he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. He half expected to be hauled into his room and beaten for whatever transgression he'd committed, and hated himself for the weakness. He'd stood rooted to his spot, staring at the alley Gozaburo had run to, ever since the man had been unleashed from the puzzle. What the hell had gone wrong? What had Yami done?

That last question caused Kaiba to whirl around and stalk towards Yugi, who was now standing on his own and also starting at where Gozaburo had disappeared.

"What did Yami do?" Kaiba yelled. "Why did he let Gozaburo out?"

Yugi looked up at him, puzzled. He was about to say something, when Yami suddenly took over.

"I didn't do anything, Kaiba," Yami said, looking as shocked as Kaiba felt, and brushed Joey's arm away. He walked towards Kaiba, until Kaiba was forced to take a step back when Yami got too close to him. "I recited the spell that should have destroyed his soul. Instead, he seems to have been given a body. I do not know why that happened."

Kaiba clenched his hands into fists, his nails digging into the palm of his hand. Yami seemed genuinely confused and disgusted about what had happened, which only infuriated Kaiba more. Did Yami not understand what kind of a man Gozaburo was? Did he not care about what danger he'd just put them all in? What danger Mokuba was now in? The thought of Mokuba drove a stake through his heart as he remembered how his brother had reacted to him earlier. His anger faded away then, to be replaced by a feeling of self disgust. Yami's words from Ancient Egypt flittered through his head once again and left him numb: _"You disgust me, Kaiba," _Yami had said_. "If there is anyone here that deserves to be left alone, it's you."_ Kaiba glanced at his younger brother, who stood a few feet away from him and swallowed the lump in his throat.

"You were right, Yami, like always." Kaiba said.

He turned around and began to run down the street. His body no longer hurt, so he pounded the pavement, relishing in the feel of the pain-free movement, of the wind on his face. He heard people yelling behind him, but he tuned them out. The injuries he'd suffered remained imprinted in his mind, however, if not on his physical body, but that didn't diminish the power they had. He could still recall every hand that had touched him, every part of his body that had been violated, every scream that had been torn from his throat, and every tear that he'd shed. They'd used him and then threw him away like trash. In the end, wasn't that what he really was? He was an orphan, after all. His relatives hadn't wanted him and Gozaburo had adopted him only because he'd needed an heir. Gozaburo had used him for his sick games, and would have eventually thrown him away as well if the old man hadn't died first. His brother no longer needed him, not now that he had been made aware of what kind of a person his older brother really was. Kaiba had been stupid to con himself into believing that his life had meaning. If he was gone, who would care? Whose life would that change?

He stopped running and was surprised to find himself a block away from Kaiba Corporation. Gozaburo would surely be returning here at some point and would undoubtedly need someone to run the show for him or to provide access to the many secure files in the KC databases. Kaiba smiled at the prospect of working with his adoptive father. What did he have to loose? Maybe he could still trick Gozaburo into finishing what he'd started while they'd been in the puzzle. Kaiba was sure that Gozaburo had years of pent up anger at him just itching to be let out and now that he wasn't sharing a body with Yugi, Gozaburo had the perfect opportunity to get his revenge.

Kaiba's lips curved into a sinister version of a smile. Yes, this could definitely work. Having made up his mind, Kaiba began a slow jog the rest of the way to the building.

* * *

"Any luck?" 

Mokuba shook his head, dejected. "No. I couldn't keep up with him. I lost him after about two blocks."

"Do you know where he could be going?" Yugi asked. "Is there a place he feels is safe, where he goes to get away from everyone and everything?"

Mokuba stopped and turned to Yugi. The suspicious look the young Kaiba gave Yugi gave his older brother a run for his money in the 'if looks could kill' department.

"Do you know something about why my brother took off?"

Yugi's voice froze in his throat at the look of misery in Mokuba's eyes. Did he know why Kaiba had taken off? No, he didn't. Did he have one big, whopping suspicion? Yes, he did. He also knew that Kaiba had no business being left alone with only his thoughts for company, which is why Yugi was so desperate to find him. Unfortunately, Yugi wasn't at liberty to disclose his suspicions, not only for Kaiba's sake, but for his own as well.

When Kaiba had taken off running, they'd all gone running after him. Yugi had a feeling that only he and Mokuba had done it because they actually cared about where Kaiba was going and why, while everyone else had just done it because Yugi had. Yugi didn't know how the others had fared in the search, but he did know that he and Mokuba had not been able to catch up with him.

"No, I'm just trying to figure out where he could have gone," Yugi finally answered, the lie sounding very unconvincing to his own ears.

Mokuba looked at him as if he didn't believe what Yugi had said either, but didn't press the issue any further.

"He usually goes to Kaiba Corp. when he's anxious or wants to be left alone," Mokuba finally said. "My big brother likes to work when he's got something on his mind."

"Well, we're a couple of blocks from there, aren't we?" Yugi asked as he looked around the area. "Let's go and see if we can find him."

Mokuba nodded his agreement, and they took off in the direction of Kaiba Corp.

_:You're a lousy liar, Yugi:_

Yugi winced at the statement, and guilt immediately flooded through him at the deception he was carrying out. It wasn't just Mokuba he was fooling; it was everyone around him as well. Yami hadn't made the statement with malice, simply with sincerity, but it didn't make a difference. Yugi knew that he couldn't argue with that simple truth.

_:You know why Kaiba took off, don't you? I heard you thinking that he shouldn't be alone right now:_

Yugi clenched his jaw in annoyance, and then regretted feeling that way towards Yami. As soon as that thought had passed through his mind, Yugi panicked. If Yami had heard that thought, what other thoughts had he heard? Was Yami feeling the guilt Yugi was experiencing? Could the spirit enter his memories and access what happened in Egypt through his mind? Would Yami do that, even if it was against Yugi's will?

_:Neither one of us needs to be alone right now, Yami: Yugi replied and hoped that Yami would buy the explanation. :We've been though a very challenging situation and we need to stay together for moral support. That's all:_

Yugi took a deep breath and forced his legs to go faster. He had a feeling that Kaiba was heading towards something that he wouldn't be able to take back, and Yugi had to get to him before he made any decisions and maybe talk some sense into him. He didn't know how he was going to do that, but he wanted to try. Yugi could feel Yami's worry and frustration at the back of his mind, and felt tremendous guilt for having to keep his other half in the dark. Yugi usually confided in Yami and awful lot, telling him everything that was going on with him, because Yami had a knack for making his problems seem manageable, fixable. Yugi couldn't tell Yami what had happened in Egypt, however. He could never tell anyone about what he'd done there. He didn't even want to think about it, and had done his best to push it into a corner of his mind where it would stay shut in a tight box. Seeing Kaiba only served to remind him of his own sin, but Yugi was too caring to let that stop him from trying to keep Kaiba from making an already bad situation worse.

Yami knew that something was going on with, of that Yugi was sure. Yugi had shut down the link he and Yami shared and had locked the door to his soul room as soon as he'd gotten possession of the puzzle back. He was sure Yami had noticed those things already, but hadn't said anything yet. Yami wouldn't force Yugi to tell him anything until he was ready, and for that, Yugi was grateful. He wasn't ready to share what had happened in the desert yet. If he were completely honest with himself, Yugi wasn't sure that he'd ever be able to share it. What worried Yugi was that he was going to get careless and that Yami would find out about what happened because of it. He had to be more careful and keep his emotions even more tightly under wraps.

:What did Kaiba mean when he said that you were right, Yami: Yugi asked, recalling Kaiba's comment before he'd taken off. Yugi didn't remember that particular conversation and it had seemed odd to have Kaiba admit that Yami had been right.

Yami was silent, and Yugi felt Yami's guilt filter through the wall Yami had thrown up between them at that moment. They apparently both had things to hide from each other, Yugi suddenly realized. The spirit remained quiet for a long moment, before finally giving an answer.

_I do not know, Yugi:_ was all Yami said.

Yugi sighed. _:Now who's the lousy liar:_ He asked.

There was a tense silence between them, and Yugi could feel Yami distancing himself from him. In a way, Yugi lamented the fact that they both had secrets they felt they had to keep from each other. In another way, Yugi was grateful that Yami would retreat. With Yami not entirely present in his mind, there was less of a risk that he would feel or hear something that Yugi didn't want him to know.

_:What happened with Gozaburo: _Yugi finally asked.

_:I do not know, Yugi. It was as if the soul was protected, guarded somehow. As I began to destroy the soul, another force, more powerful than mine, began to restore it. I fought it and tried to finish what I had started, but in the end, the other spell won out.:_

Yugi frowned. _:I hadn't realized Gozaburo was that powerful:_

Yami didn't reply right away._ :I do not think Gozaburo was behind it.:_

_:If not Gozaburo, then who: _Yugi asked.

_I do not know:_

Yami retreated completely, and Yugi felt oddly alone. The feeling reminded him of how he'd felt in Ancient Egypt, and the mere though of that place sent shivers down his spine. He shook his head to clear it and when he returned his attention to the street, he found that they were almost to the Kaiba Corp. building. Half a block in front of them, heading towards the building at a slow jog, was none other than Seto Kaiba.

"There he is!" Mokuba exclaimed and ran a little faster, passing Yugi and heading straight towards his brother. "Big brother, wait!"

Yugi saw Kaiba momentarily falter in his jog, before he began to jog faster. Kaiba was avoiding his younger brother, and Yugi had no idea why that was. It was deeply hurting Mokuba, that much he could tell. When Kaiba had reached the entrance to Kaiba Corp. he stopped and looked back at them. Mokuba reached him first, and Kaiba pushed the younger man away forcefully. When Yugi reached them, Mokuba had tears in his eyes.

"Why are you doing this, big brother? Why are you running away?"

Kaiba gave no answer. Yugi stopped in between the brothers and forced his breathing back to normal. He'd gotten a lot more tired than he should have during that run.

"Come back with us, Kaiba. You don't need to be here," Yugi said, that feeling that Kaiba was about to do something stupid getting stronger with each passing heart beat. "Whatever you were going to do can wait."

Kaiba shifted his focus from Mokuba to Yugi and glared.

"Come back with us," Yugi repeated.

"Why do you want me to return with you?" Kaiba asked. "There is nothing for me with you or your group."

"What is there for you here?" Mokuba asked. "Gozaburo has already done a lot of damage to the company, and you shouldn't try to make it right by yourself."

Kaiba didn't have an answer to that. His jaw was clenched tight, as were his fists, and he looked everywhere but at Mokuba. Finally, his eyes landed on Yugi once again.

"Please, Kaiba, just one night."

Kaiba frowned. "What the hell do you mean?" he practically barked.

"Come back to the game shop with us and wait one night to make the decision you were about to make," Yugi said. He wasn't sure what Kaiba had planned on doing at the company, but he had an idea and knew that it would only turn out badly for Kaiba in the end. "If, tomorrow morning, you still want to come back and do whatever you were going to do, Mokuba and I won't get in your way."

Mokuba whirled around and pierced Yugi with an icy glare that would have done his brother proud if Kaiba had been in a better mood. Yugi pleaded with him for trust with his eyes and was very relieved when Mokuba relented. The look changed to one that promised severe retribution if whatever Yugi had in mind didn't work, but Yugi was willing to take that risk.

"One night and I promise to stay off your back and leave you alone."

Kaiba seemed to actually be thinking about the offer, which gave Yugi a small measure of hope. There was something else he could say, but phrasing it in a way that neither Mokuba nor Yami would understand would be the hard part.

"We still have some things to discuss, Kaiba, about deals and promises."

Kaiba's eyes narrowed and Yugi could see the immediate flash of panic in Kaiba's eyes, before the taller teen put a lid on the emotion and his face became an emotionless mask once again.

"I honor the deals I make," Kaiba finally said. "Fine, I will go with you, but I will be back here tomorrow."

Mokuba and Yugi did not bother to hide their relief or their smiles. Mokuba went up to his brother, grabbed his hand and began to pull him along, and was too happy to notice the uncomfortable look on Kaiba's face at the unwanted touch. A piece of Yugi's heart broke at the sight.

They had a long road ahead of them.

* * *

High Priest Seto left his guards by the carriage, well outside of the bandit camp. He wasn't sure why he'd done that, except that he had a strong feeling that he had to look at what had transpired in the bandit's camp by himself. The guards had not been happy about being left behind, but Seto had insisted. In the end, they'd been able to do nothing but stare after him as he'd walked deeper and deeper into what had been, up until a short time ago, a camp full of enemies. Now, it was deserted, cold, and had an aura of magic about it that was very familiar to the high priest, because it was magic that he was well acquainted with. 

The wind blew strongly, which made him shiver even in the midday heat of the desert. The camp wasn't warm, however. It was as if the camp had been covered by an invisible layer that kept the warmth of the sun from reaching the ground. As soon as the thought had crossed through the high priest's mind, he knew why that was: the same magic he'd felt as soon as he'd stepped off the carriage. This place was shrouded in shadow magic, and would probably be for a long time to come.

Seto had stopped by the first structure he'd come to, which was a makeshift tent that had toppled onto its side after failing to win the battle with the wind. Several other tents littered the campsite, but most of those were still standing. The high priest began to make his way through the tents, knowing already that they were all empty, but needing to check anyway, when a small mound of sand directly in front of him drew his attention. It was no different than the mounds of sand you'd find in the desert, except that this one was smaller had a peculiar thing sticking out of it. Seto couldn't tell what it was from this distance, so he made his way quickly towards it.

When he got to the mound, he realized that it wasn't the only one. There were about ten others, all lined up in a row with the same things sticking up out of them. Being this close, the high priest was finally able to see that the thing protruding from the sand was a piece of wood, probably taken from one of the many tents that had been toppled over. About ¾ of the way to the top of the piece of wood, another piece of wood had been tied to it, making a cross. High Priest Seto frowned. Why would the bandits do this? What did it represent? Curious, the high priest slowly inched his way closer to take a better look at the cross. When he was almost to it, his right foot sunk into the sand. Seto gasped and threw his hands out to catch himself, only to have them, too, sink into the sand. His headpiece slid off and slid down the sand dune, the sound of the metal hitting sand the only thing breaking the gloomy silence of the place. He turned his head to the side to avoid getting sand in his eyes or nose, and barely missed hitting the sand with his face when his knees broke the fall. Thankfully, they did not sink into the sand.

The priest shook his head, annoyed. He sat on the dune and carefully pulled his hands out of the sand. He began the same process with is foot, but found that it had gotten caught on something. He forced his foot out and then strangled a cry of surprise when an arm came out of the sand with his foot. Seto backed away quickly, breathing fast as his heart thumped in his chest. The arm remained motionless where it had landed, but Seto wasn't too quick to get back to it. He waited until his breath had returned to normal and his heart wasn't attempting to fly out of his rib cage before he cautiously made his way back to the arm. Common sense told him to call the guards, but he wasn't listening to his common sense anymore. The shadow magic he'd felt when he'd arrived had given him an inkling of what had occurred in this place, and this arm now proved it.

Carefully, Seto pulled the arm out of the sand until the body it was attached to came with it. Once the head was clear of the sand, the face became all too clear. High Priest Seto found himself staring at Hori's wide, lifeless eyes. Seto turned to the other mounds of sand and the reality of what he was staring at suddenly became clear to him: he was looking at a burial ground. The hope that he'd harbored, small as it had been, that his double had been spared the humiliation Hori had threatened was suddenly gone. Hori's clothing was covered in dried blood. The bandit's pants were unfastened and hung loosely off the hips, where Seto could see even more dried blood. He didn't have to wonder who that blood belonged to.

Seto's stomach rolled with nausea and it took a monumental effort to keep from throwing up. He had a feeling that if he were to bring up the rest of the bodies buried in this makeshift grave site, that they'd all be in a similar state. Priest Seto began to shiver and immense guilt threatened to press him into the sand. He wished now that he'd handled his double differently, been more watchful and provided more support. How had his double been able to not only endure what these bastards had done to him, but to be able to walk around as if nothing was amiss and he'd just taken a bit of a beating? Killing his attackers had to have brought some satisfaction, and the high priest was glad that they'd gotten what they'd deserved.

"My double wasn't carrying a Millennium Item," High Pries Seto muttered as the thought struck. "He couldn't have killed them."

If Seto Kaiba hadn't killed the bandits, then who had? He didn't have to wait long for the answer, since a face popped into his mind immediately. Yugi and Seto Kaiba had been kidnapped together, after all, which made the priest wonder if the pharaoh look alike had suffered the same fate as his friend. It was possible. Yugi had seemed different after the ordeal as well. Granted, the boy had been dead when the priest had seen him again, but still, if Yugi had been a witness to what had been done to his friend, it would have been cause enough for him to summon the shadow realm and kill the aggressors. Similarly, if the boy had suffered the same fate, he would have had even more of a reason to kill them.

The high priest drew in a deep breath and then released it. It came out a lot shakier than he liked. He didn't have any reason to feel guilt for those two people, because he hardly knew them. For all intents and purposes, they were strangers. They'd been around for a few days and then had gone back to where they'd come from. It was no big deal. What had occurred in this camp happened in many camps around Egypt almost every day. The priest had seen it before, and he was more than likely to see it again. There was nothing different about this particular incident, nothing that should give it that much more meaning.

Having decided that he had no reason to feel guilty, High Priest Seto got up, picked up his fallen headpiece, and briskly walked back to where he'd left his guards. He would have made it uninterrupted, if a spot of sand hadn't caught his attention. The spot was not very big, but it was dark brown, almost as if someone had spilled a bucket of paint. The sand surrounding the spot was untouched, except for some small places where the paint had splashed the surrounding areas. A glint of sunlight caught his attention, and the priest kneeled down to pick up a piece of metal that was half buried in the sand on the other side of the spot, next to a medium sized rock. The priest didn't recognize the rectangular, richly decorated piece until a few minutes later, when a vision of his double wearing the thing, he'd called it a buckle, around his waist went through his mind. The metal was hot to the touch, but it was still pristine, as if it had been recklessly thrown aside. Seto looked around the rock and found black fabric on the other side. When he picked that up, he realized that it was the black shirt Seto Kaiba had been wearing. It had been cut down the middle and torn in a few places, presumably when it had been torn off of Seto Kaiba's body.

The priest had been so intent on what he'd found that he didn't realize he'd completely circled the rock and had ended up back where he'd started, in front of the brown spot. The shirt in his hands suddenly brought the point home, and he recognized the brown stuff for what it was: not brown paint, but dried blood, a lot of dried blood. He couldn't contain the nausea this time, so the priest dropped to his knees and retched, until there was nothing left in his stomach for him to empty. Vivid images of what his guard had done to Hori's sister intruded his mind, but instead of the woman being the one in trouble, the priest saw himself being attacked. That brought another bout of nausea, but there was nothing left to empty. The guilt that he'd convinced himself he shouldn't feel returned with a vengeance, and it felt five times heavier than it had before. The weight of it kept the priest on his hands and knees struggling to breathe. The thought of revenge was heavy on his mind, but that had already been taken care of. Without revenge, what could he possibly do to make things better, to atone for the damage that had been done in his place?

The priest got to his feet and threw the piece of black cloth away. He kept the silver buckle, however. With his fingers, he cleaned the sand off of it and put it in an inner pocket of his robe. He could use that to find Seto Kaiba again, of that he had no doubt. He knew the spell the pharaoh's double had used to get them here, so it would be a simple matter of using the same spell to get to them.

The question was: what would finding Seto Kaiba in his own time accomplish?

* * *

Seto Kaiba had known he'd made a mistake the moment he'd walked into the house to find Mr. Moto preparing dinner. He'd known that the best thing for him would be to turn around and walk out of the homey atmosphere of the Turtle Game Shop, but one look from Yugi, a reminder of the deal they'd made, kept him rooted in place. He'd retreated into himself and had gone through the motions of a civilized dinner. He hadn't eaten anything and had barely touched the tea he'd been served, much to his brother's and Yugi's discomfort. He'd said nothing, even when questions had been directed at him. He'd withdrawn to the point that he barely heard anyone or anything, except for the screaming in his head. 

The screams were punctuated by vicious words that Kaiba desperately wished he couldn't understand. They pierced his heart like bullets, taking a bit of it with them every time he recalled them. He told himself that the words meant nothing, that he'd heard worse, but the pain that each word brought, the act that accented each remark, made it painfully hard to dismiss them. If he was a decent person, what had been done to him would never have happened. If he was strong, he would have been able to prevent it. His body ached with remembered pain, which only worsened with each assault. He desperately wished to clap his hands over his ears to keep the screams and the vicious words out, but he was being held down, pinned like an animal, unable to move.

The screams suddenly changed. They were no longer his. In fact, the voices seemed to be calling his name. They seemed urgent, which seemed odd to him. He was the one begging for help, not anyone else. What could they be screaming about? He emerged from his inner nightmare to find everyone at the table staring at him. He blinked and realized that no one was hurt. Everyone was still sitting around the table as they'd been when dinner had started. Puzzled, he turned to Mokuba, who had tears in his eyes. Why was Mokuba crying?

Kaiba felt a prickling sensation on his right hand and looked down to discover that he'd crushed the small, porcelain cup where his tea had been served and, in the process, had embedded several pieces of porcelain into his palm. Yugi, who was sitting to his right, gently forced his hand open, and the loose pieces of porcelain fell to the tabletop. The remaining pieces stuck out of his palm at sharp angles, and they were already coated with bright, red blood. Blood dripped from his hand onto the cream colored tablecloth, leaving ugly, red marks in its wake

Kaiba looked at the mess his hand had become and didn't feel any pain. As a matter of fact, he felt nothing but a grim fascination with the way the blood looked as it oozed out of the cuts and down his palm.

"What the hell are you trying to do, young man," Mr. Moto growled as he got up from the table. He rushed over to Kaiba's side and gently nudged Yugi out of the way. The old man kneeled next to him and took the hand. When Kaiba tried to pull it out of the old man's grasp, Mr. Moto surprised him by not relinquishing it. The old fool had some strength left, after all. "You've cut your hand up pretty good," the man said as he got up and pulled Kaiba up with him. "Come on, let's clean this up."

Kaiba finally returned to his senses and dug in his heels. He pulled with more strength than he'd used before and managed to get his hand out of Mr. Moto's grasp.

"I'll take care of it," Kaiba growled as he took a few steps away from the old man. "I don't need your help."

Mr. Moto's jaw clenched. "You may not need my help, but you're going to get it anyway. Besides, you don't know where I keep the medical supplies."

Kaiba smirked. "I bet with all the beatings your grandson took, you would have needed to keep a lot of those around."

Mr. Moto shot him a look that warned Kaiba to watch his mouth, before his attention turned to Yugi.

"Yugi, you and Mokuba clear the table and wash the dishes. We'll be right back."

Without another word, and without waiting for confirmation from Yugi, Mr. Moto took Kaiba's other hand and led him to the upstairs bathroom. The old man made Kaiba sit on the edge of the bathtub, while he rummaged through the cabinets around the small bathroom for the first aid kit. When he found it, Mr. Moto took out a couple of bottles, a pair of scissors, a roll of tape and some gauze pads.

"Come here," the old man said, and Kaiba couldn't help but obey. He felt like a reprimanded child and figured that in his state, he didn't have the energy to engage in a battle of wits with an old man.

He stepped up to the sink, and Mr. Moto immediately grabbed his hand and poured alcohol over the still bleeding cuts. Kaiba figured that the alcohol should sting, but again, he felt nothing. Mr. Moto looked at him, as if he expected a reaction out of that, and then seemed puzzled when he got nothing but silence. The old man took out a pair of tweezers from the first aid kit and gently pulled out the pieces of porcelain, bathing each cut in alcohol as he did so. There were four medium sized pieces stuck in the palm, along with a number of small ones. The wounds continued to bleed, and one look at the old man's face told Kaiba that he was worried. Kaiba wanted to tell him not to bother, to just let the wounds bleed until he ran out of blood, but he didn't.

"You're lucky that you don't need stitches. It would do you some good to be kept in the hospital overnight for pulling this stupid stunt," Mr. Moto commented, and it seemed to Kaiba as if the old man were speaking simply to keep the silence from engulfing them both. Kaiba didn't mind the silence one bit, even if it was accompanied by the sound of his screams.

With expert precision, Mr. Moto cleaned the wounds, applied gauze to them and then taped the gauze in place. He then wrapped Kaiba's hand in more gauze before finally releasing it. Kaiba looked at the hand and he could already see the spots where blood had filtered through the gauze.

"The cuts will bleed for a bit before the blood starts to congeal. Don't move that hand or you'll keep opening the cuts."

Mr. Moto quickly cleaned up the blood from the sink and surrounding areas, and then put the medical supplies away. Kaiba assumed they were done, so he walked out of the bathroom. He was at the door when the old man's voice cut through to him.

"Seto."

That single word froze him in place, because he heard it so rarely from people other than his little brother.

"You're going to have to face it sooner or later," Mr. Moto said to Kaiba's back. "You can only run away for so long."

Without acknowledging the words, Kaiba walked out of the bathroom. He was halfway to the stairs when he stopped and realized he'd begun to shake. Could Mr. Moto know? He'd seemed sure that Kaiba was running from something, but could he know about what had happened? How could the old man know? Was there something about him, something that had made Mr. Moto see that he'd been brutally...?" Kaiba trailed off, unwilling to finish that thought. He clenched his jaw and his hands, and continued down the stairs. The old man couldn't know, and even if he did, why would he care? Kaiba didn't have anything to worry about, because like everyone else in his life, Mr. Moto could be fooled into thinking exactly what Kaiba wanted him to think. If there was anything he was good at, it was fooling everyone else.

* * *

"What's wrong with him, Yugi? Why did he do that?" 

Yugi Moto bit his bottom lip to keep from releasing the scream of frustration he'd been fighting ever since his grandfather had marched Kaiba to the upstairs bathroom to take care of his hand. The confusion and fear in Mokuba's voice pulled at his heart strings, and Yugi felt like he was betraying the young Kaiba by not answering him. If Mokuba had been in a better frame of mind, he would have realized that Yugi was deliberately being obtuse and avoiding the subject. As it was, Mokuba was too preoccupied with concern for his brother to notice.

"He's been acting really weird since you all came back," Mokuba continued. "It's like he's not really here anymore."

Yugi had noticed that as well, but it wasn't anything new to him. Yugi knew why Kaiba was acting the way he was, and it was eating him up inside that he couldn't confide in someone about it. What really bothered him was that he'd made a promise to Kaiba that he wouldn't tell anyone, even if it was someone that could help him. On the other hand, Yugi was glad that he couldn't say anything. He felt guilty about that particular thought, but he wasn't eager to admit what he'd done. He didn't want to lose his friends and family; didn't want them to look at him and see him as a killer. He'd begun to pull away from them, because he was afraid that if something else happened, he'd snap again and do the same thing he'd done in the Egyptian desert. Living with the lives of those bandits on his hands was one thing. He didn't think he could live with the life of one of his friends or family members on his already bloodied hands.

"Yugi, you're doing it too! What's going on?"

Yugi snapped out of his thoughts and realized that he'd stopped with the plate he was drying halfway to the cupboard and had been staring at the soapy water for a while. He turned to Mokuba and attempted a smile.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba, I wasn't paying attention," Yugi said.

"I know you weren't. You're doing the same thing my brother did at dinner," Mokuba said. He put down the cup he'd been rinsing and turned to Yugi. "Please tell me what's going on. Both you and Seto are acting strangely. I'm worried."

Yugi took a deep breath and fought down the panic that was threatening to overwhelm him. His stomach turned and threatened to return the dinner he'd just eaten. With a calmness that he wouldn't have thought he was able to convey, he set the plate down and wiped his hands dry.

"It was a long trip, Mokuba," Yugi finally said, betraying none of the shakiness he felt. "We're just tired. I'm sure we'll be fine after a good night's sleep." Yugi managed a smile as he picked up the trash bag from a corner of the kitchen. He neglected to mention that he didn't think he'd be getting any sleep tonight. "I'm going to take out the trash."

Yugi left the younger Kaiba in the kitchen to finish the rest of the dishes and went out into the backyard. The sun had set long ago, making way for a cloudless and chilly night. The moon was only a sliver in the night sky, but it illuminated enough of the yard so that Yugi could see where the trash bin was by the back gate without having to turn on any lights. Once he'd put the bag into the bin, Yugi laid his hands flat on the top of it and looked up at the sky. The stars were bright, and he could almost imagine losing himself in them. The solitude and safety they offered was tempting and Yugi wished that there was someplace he could go to feel the same way. The stars in the sky began to blur a little, and Yugi realized that his eyes had filled with tears. He closed his eyes tightly, clenched his hands, and forced the tears to stop. He was better and stronger than this. He wasn't a baby, and he wasn't weak. He could deal with this and it wasn't going to involve tears, not anymore.

"It would be so easy, wouldn't it?"

The voice caught Yugi completely off guard. He yelped in surprise and almost knocked the trash bin onto its side. He turned to find the silhouette of Seto Kaiba a few feet in front of him. The moonlight reflected off his eyes, making them look grayish and alien.

"What would be so easy?" Yugi asked.

Kaiba shrugged. He walked to the fence and leaned against it, his face still turned upward towards the sky. The lamp from the alley behind the house lit half of his face, giving his features an orange glow. His hands were at his sides and they were clenched into fists. Yugi was about to say something about the injured hand, but then thought better of it. He walked to where Kaiba stood but was careful to stay a good distance away.

"I'm glad it's night," Kaiba said.

Yugi frowned at the inconsistent tidbits of conversation Kaiba was offering, but he was glad that Kaiba was finally saying something.

"Why?" Yugi asked.

Kaiba swallowed, and the movement of his Adam's apple reminded Yugi way too much of watching Kaiba as he lay in the sand in that camp. He thought that Kaiba was going to once again ignore his question, but he was wrong.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to look up at the blue sky again."

A vision of Kaiba's face, looking up at the blinding, blue sky in Egypt as tears fell down the side of his face and he clenched his jaw to keep from screaming violently invaded Yugi's mind. The vision was so strong that Yugi took a step back and promptly tripped on a discarded piece of wood. He landed on his butt, but he barely felt the impact. He bowed his head, clenched his hands in his lap, and forced the memory out of his mind. He sat in complete silence until the rustle of Kaiba's clothing caught his attention. Yugi looked up and found Kaiba standing directly in front of him, instead of by the fence, looking down at him.

"I don't think you will either."

With that, Kaiba left the yard and walked back into the house. Yugi watched him go, but had no desire to get up and go back inside. The night was getting chillier, but he didn't care. The cold let him know that he was still alive, even though he felt half dead inside. Yugi leaned back until he was lying on his back in the cold grass. He examined the starry sky once again and realized that Kaiba was right: he was never going to be able to look up at the blue sky again. They finally agreed on something, but Yugi had a feeling that, in the end, their shared secret was going to end up devouring both of them.

* * *

End of chapter 28 

Next up: a restless night, and a decision from the high priest.


	29. Unspeakable

Greetings! Here is the promised chapter. I'm not going to say much, because it's really late and I'm dead tired. I don't think my brain wants to work anymore and I only hope that I managed to remove most of the errors/misspellings/grammar misuse from this chapter. If not, you have my apologies in advance. I may have to actively recruit for a beta before long if my mental state doesn't improve… :o)

Reviewers: thank you so very much for sticking with this story. I know it's long, I know it's depressing; I know it deals with a lot of icky stuff, and I appreciate the support you all give me. It's not easy to review, and I am very grateful to those of you that do. I send you all cyber hugs.

Enjoy!

**Part 29: Unspeakable**

The house was quiet. It had been, since everyone had retired for the night. It was a little bit past midnight, and Yugi had been lying in bed for the past hour, tossing and turning, unwilling to close his eyes. He'd spent a good deal of time outside, enough for the chill of the night to have seeped into his bones. He'd put on his warmest pajamas and had climbed into bed to get warm, but so far, it hadn't helped. Of course, pajamas and warm blankets wouldn't help with the chill of his soul. He was beginning to think that nothing ever would.

The lights in his room were turned off, but plenty of moonlight filtered in through the window above his bed to give him more than enough illumination. Some of that moonlight reflected off of the Millennium Puzzle, which lay on his desk at the other side of the room. A part of him longed to go into the puzzle and seek Yami out, but he would not allow himself to do that, not until he could answer Yami's questions.

He felt so alone, segregated from everyone else. He hadn't felt this way since before he'd managed to put together the Millennium Puzzle, but it seemed to have more of an effect now. Back then, he hadn't had any friends to confide in or go to when he was having problems, so being alone was all he'd ever known. He had those friends now, but he couldn't go to them, not if he wanted them to remain his friends.

Yugi sat up on the bed and brought his knees up to his chest. He curled up into as tight a ball as he could, and did his best to block out his memories. Now that he was alone, in the dark, he couldn't help but replay the scene in the desert over and over in his mind. He kept wondering if there was something he could have done differently, something he could have said to have prevented the whole thing. Not for the first time, he wished that he were bigger and stronger. Maybe if he had been, he would have been able to help in some way.

Another thing that kept going through his mind was a simple question: why? Why had those men done that to Kaiba? He'd missed the first part of the confrontation, because he'd still been unconscious, but when he'd come to, one of them had been saying something about a sister. Yugi hadn't paid much attention, because he'd been trying to find a way to help Kaiba out of that situation. He had a sinking feeling that when he had attacked the man with the dagger, which hadn't worked, it had only made the situation worse.

Why would they do that? No one had a right to attack another human being, much less in so personal a manner. Yugi didn't know the history of Kaiba's life, and he had a feeling that Kaiba would never willingly tell him. Whatever reasons Kaiba had for being cold, reserved, and antagonistic were his own. Yugi had no business interfering, and all he'd ever tried to do was let Kaiba know that it was okay, that Yugi accepted him as he was. He still accepted Kaiba just as he was, but Yugi had a feeling that Kaiba no longer accepted himself.

He was being a hypocrite about one thing, though. Just as the men hadn't had a right to attack Kaiba, Yugi hadn't had a right to attack them. What did that say about him? Did that make him just like them? If he ever got sufficiently mad at someone, would he do what they did? Would he break someone down so completely, as the men had done to Kaiba, or would he just settle with killing? The thought made his stomach churn, and he curled into an even tighter ball. How could he have done such a thing? He'd wanted them to stop hurting Kaiba; he hadn't wanted them to die. In the end, it didn't matter, because he'd managed to kill them just the same.

A soft knock on his door broke him out of his self-recrimination. Whoever it was, Yugi really didn't want to talk to them. He kept his head on his knees and hoped that whoever was knocking on the door would go away. A short time later, Yugi could barely make out the sound of the door knob being turned and the door slowly being opened. He must have forgotten to lock the door when he'd come into his room earlier and he cursed himself for it.

He remained where he was, completely still, and hoped that the dark patch of bed he was sitting on would disguise him. It apparently didn't, because the person came fully into the room, closed the door, and sat down next to him on the bed. Yugi didn't have to look to know that it was his grandfather sitting next to him; he could tell from the presence and the scent of the man, and a part of him wanted to throw his arms around his grandfather like he'd done earlier in the day. He refrained from doing that, however.

"Why aren't you sleeping Yugi?"

Yugi didn't reply and didn't turn his head towards his grandfather. A few minutes later, a hand settled on his back so unexpectedly that he jumped at the touch, but didn't move away. He was grateful when his grandfather didn't move the hand away either. Instead, his grandfather began to rub his back, as he'd done so many times since he'd come to live at the game shop. The comfort his grandfather's touch provided felt good, but Yugi felt guilty for receiving it. He didn't deserve it, after all.

"Talk to me, my boy," his grandfather said in a soft voice. "I look at you and I know that you've got something to say, and I don't understand why you won't talk to me about it."

Yugi closed his eyes in hopes that the tears that had begun to fill them wouldn't fall. He didn't want to be a baby anymore. He didn't want to cry, and he was glad that he was facing away from his grandfather.

"Oh, Yugi," his grandfather said again, and the pain was evident in the older man's voice. "Whatever it is, I wish I could take it away from you."

Yugi swallowed the lump in his throat and finally moved away from his grandfather's comforting touch, without changing his hunched up position or the way he was facing. The hand fell heavily onto the mattress, making a soft thumping sound. They sat together in painful silence, until Yugi was finally able to find his voice.

"You love me, don't you, grandpa?" Yugi managed to whisper.

"Of course I love you, Yugi. What kind of a question is that?"

Yugi hated himself for making his grandfather worry, but there was no other way. There was one thing he had to know, though, and he probably wouldn't get another chance to ask it.

"What if I did something unspeakable? Would you still love me then, grandpa?"

Yugi heard his grandfather's gasp of surprise and prepared himself for whatever answer the older man might give him. Instead of a verbal answer, his grandfather scooted closer to him and wrapped his arms around Yugi's shaking shoulders. His grandfather pulled Yugi closer, until Yugi had uncurled from his position and was resting against his grandfather with his face buried in his grandfather's chest. He didn't want to see the expression on the elder man's face, nor did he want his grandfather to see the expression on his. His grandfather wrapped his arms protectively around Yugi, and then kissed Yugi's forehead.

"Sometimes, we do things that we don't want to do," the elder man said, "but I know what's in your heart. There's nothing you can do that will ever make me stop loving you."

Yugi felt the tears welling up in his eyes again, but he didn't fight them this time. Instead, he wrapped his arms around his grandfather and allowed himself to relax.

"Go to sleep, Yugi. I'll be here in the morning."

In the warmth and relative safety of his grandfather's arms, Yugi finally drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"_What if I did something unspeakable? Would you still love me then, grandpa?"_

That simple question, asked with such fear, still reverberated through Yami's mind, long after it had been asked. He had materialized outside of the puzzle with the intention of talking to Yugi, but had remained invisible when he'd noticed that Mr. Moto was also in the room. He'd wanted to give them privacy, not overhear, but once he'd heard Yugi's question, he hadn't been able to stop listening.

Yugi was now asleep, but even from across the room, Yami could tell that it was not a peaceful sleep. Every so often, Yugi would whimper and plead for forgiveness. Every time he did this, Mr. Moto would run his hands through Yugi's hair and whisper reassurances to him, which seemed to calm Yugi down, if only for a little while. Mr. Moto looked wide awake, and Yami had a feeling that the elder Moto was not going to be getting much sleep tonight.

"No! Don't do that," Yugi yelled. "Please leave him alone!"

Yugi thrashed a bit in his grandfather's arms, but Mr. Moto didn't let go.

"It's okay, Yugi, whatever it is, it's okay," Mr. Moto whispered in Yugi's ear. "Don't worry…"

The elder man trailed off, and in the bright moonlight that provided the room's only illumination, Yami could see the strain this was causing Mr. Moto. He was hurting for his grandchild, especially because there was nothing that he could do to help. Yami closed his eyes and quickly willed himself back into the puzzle. He couldn't watch any longer, not without at least trying to find out what had happened to put Yugi in such a state. Yami had materialized in his soul room, but decided that he didn't want to be there and stepped out of it, onto the hallway that separated his room from Yugi's. He stared at his partner's soul room for a long moment, before deciding to take action. He would never forcefully invade Yugi's inner sanctum, but he didn't have much of a choice. Yugi wouldn't tell him what was going on, but he had to find out. He would gladly take whatever condemnation or punishment Yugi deemed fit for him later, but right now, all he wanted was to help his friend and partner.

He stepped up to the door and turned the knob, which was, surprisingly, unlocked. Yugi must have lowered his defenses in his unconscious state and left his soul room unlocked. Yami felt guilt run through him as he opened the door and stepped through, but he pushed it to the back of his mind to be dealt with later. As he stepped inside, he found himself not in Yugi's soul room, but in the middle of the desert. He looked in the direction where the door of the soul room should have been, but found that it was gone. There was nothing around him but sand and the late afternoon sun, but even that looked distorted and unreal. It didn't feel as if he were really there, it felt as if he were seeing it through someone else's eyes. He looked down at himself and saw that his hands were bloody and dirty. Yami frowned, and then realization hit him: he was looking at the world through Yugi's eyes. He wasn't really standing in the desert, but Yugi was, or had been. Yami was merely an observer, as he had been many times before when Yugi had been in control of his body. There was something wrong with this particular picture, however: Yami hadn't been in the desert with Yugi that day. He'd been with the pharaoh and the high priest.

Yugi turned around and through him Yami saw that they were in an empty camp of some kind. The wind rustled the tents here and there, but other than that occasional noise, the camp was deadly quiet. In the distance, in the direction of the setting sun, Yami saw something, no someone, lying on the sand. He couldn't tell who it was from this distance, but as Yugi walked closer to the person, Yami realized that it was Kaiba. The elder teen was curled up on his side, apparently asleep. Yugi kneeled next to Kaiba and reached out, as if to touch Kaiba, before pulling his hand away and wrapping his arms around himself. Yami couldn't hear Yugi's thoughts or feel what emotions were going through Yugi's head, as he normally would if he were observing the world through Yugi's eyes, but this wasn't a normal situation. He didn't need Yugi's thoughts and emotions, though. He had his own.

"I don't know what to do for you, Kaiba," Yugi said softly, talking to himself. "I want to help you, but I don't know how. I didn't know how."

Kaiba didn't move or even notice that Yugi was there, which Yami found unusual. Kaiba had always struck him as the hyper vigilant type who wouldn't let his guard down enough to sleep in front of someone else. Then again, one look at him told Yami that Kaiba wasn't okay, and he probably wasn't sleeping: he was probably unconscious. Yugi took off his coat and placed it over Kaiba's shaking shoulders and then sat down beside Kaiba, but not within touching distance.

"I wish you were here Yami," Yugi said, again talking to himself. He cradled the Millennium Puzzle in his hands. "You would have been able to stop them from doing this to him. You would have been able to stop me from…" Yugi trailed off and let the Millennium Puzzle fall back onto his chest. "What will you think of me if you ever find out what happened here? Will you ever look at me the same way again?"

Yami's heart felt as if it were being squeezed by two iron fists. His job was to protect Yugi and he'd failed when Yugi had needed him the most. In this particular case, he hadn't only failed Yugi, but he'd failed Kaiba as well. They had been thrust back into his time, his domain, and he had failed to protect either of them from the horrors that existed back there. Again, there was the question Yugi had posed to his grandfather, only this time, Yugi had been asking Yami. What had he done that he was so ashamed of? Why wouldn't he talk about it? Didn't he know that there was nothing he could do to make Yami turn him away?

Yami's thoughts were interrupted by a strangled scream. Yugi looked down to find that Kaiba was now awake. The elder teen's eyes were open, but unfocused. He had curled in on himself a bit tighter and had wrapped his arms around himself in a protective gesture. His face reflected the pain he must have been feeling, and Yami's eyes traveled to the broken wrist, which currently rested on Kaiba's arm. It looked worse now than when he'd seen it after they'd found Kaiba unconscious in the sand, which brought home the point that he was watching what had happened between Yugi and Kaiba shortly after they'd been attacked. He wondered what had happened to the bandits.

"Kaiba, you need to drink some more water," Yugi said softly.

He reached for a pouch that he'd been carrying in a pocket and held it out for Kaiba to see. Kaiba's eyes slowly focused on the pouch of water, and then traveled up to focus on Yugi. The eyes were bloodshot, dilated, and still slightly unfocused.

"I'm not thirsty," Kaiba said, his voice hoarse and barely audible.

"I know, but you have to drink," Yugi insisted, "to replenish the blood you've lost."

Yami was mesmerized by what he was witnessing. He was horrified by the aftermath of what had transpired in this desert, enraged that Kaiba and Yugi had both been hurt and left in the states they were in, and enraged at himself for not having acted sooner and gotten to them before they'd been hurt.

Kaiba gave a slight nod, and Yugi took that as his cue to slowly help Kaiba to a sitting position. Yugi's face was very close to Kaiba's as Yugi helped him up, and Yami could see every wince, every flinch, on Kaiba's face as he sat up and leaned against a rock. Yami wished that whoever had done this to him was standing right there with them. Yami would not hesitate to use all of his shadow powers to make the bastard, or bastards, pay for what they'd done.

Once they were settled again, Yugi held the pouch out to Kaiba, who grabbed it and took a small sip of water. He then held it out to Yugi.

"Your turn," Kaiba said.

Yugi shook his head. "I'm not thirsty."

"We made a deal, Yugi," Kaiba said slowly, "that we'd split the water between us. I take a drink and so do you."

Yugi hesitated for a moment, before taking the pouch from Kaiba and taking a small sip of water. He closed it and set it down between them. There was a long silence that followed. Yugi kept his head down, so that all Yami could see were Kaiba's outstretched legs and Yugi's own legs. The cloth on both pairs of pants was torn, dirty, and bloody, as was the part of Yugi's coat that Yami could see resting across Kaiba's legs.

"Did they hurt you?"

The question caught Yami off guard. He wanted to look at Kaiba, wanted to see the expression that went with the soft, worrisome voice, but Yugi kept his head down.

"When they… " Kaiba trailed off, and then regained his voice"… I heard you screaming, but I couldn't see…" Kaiba trailed off again. "Did they hurt you too?"

The hateful words Yami had said to Kaiba when he'd found him with Yugi's dead body came crashing back to him, as did the state Kaiba had been in at the time. In the same instant, Yami also recalled the conversation he'd had with Kaiba right after Gozaburo had been let out of the puzzle. He recalled the look on Kaiba's face as he'd told Yami that he'd been right about the things he'd said, and his guilt returned in full force. If Kaiba had been in this condition when Bakura had taken Yugi, there was no way he would have been able to do anything about it. He felt guilt at having misjudged Kaiba and attacked him so viciously, when he'd so obviously been in pain himself. Yami had been too wrapped up in his own anger and grief to notice Kaiba's, and he regretted that he could not take back what he'd said.

"They didn't hurt me," Yugi finally said, "not like that."

"I'm glad."

Yugi did turn to Kaiba then, and Yami felt tears falling down Yugi's cheeks. "I should have done something sooner. I'm so sorry."

Kaiba studied his broken wrist for a moment, before he turned to look at Yugi. When he looked up, Kaiba's face was completely open and unguarded. It struck Yami that Kaiba looked much younger, and much more vulnerable, like this.

"It's not your fault, Yugi. It's theirs." Kaiba paused. "We made a deal, remember. No one will ever know about this."

"No," Yugi agreed, "no one will ever know."

With that, Yami found himself thrown out of Yugi's soul room and back into his own. Yugi must have sensed him in the soul room and kicked him out, or it had been an unconscious move by Yugi's soul to protect itself from intrusion. Either way, what Yami had seen had given him more of an idea about what happened in the desert. It was worse than either Yugi or Kaiba had let on, and now he knew why. They'd made a pact to keep it between them, which explained the sense that Kaiba and Yugi were bonded somehow, even now. Yami knew that if they kept it to themselves, it would eventually destroy them. As much as Yami didn't want to imagine what had gone on, what had been done to Kaiba, he had an idea, and it made his stomach roil with rage. The rage also brought an unexplainable protective urge towards Kaiba which was strange to comprehend. Yami had seen Kaiba's soul, if only for a while, and knew that Kaiba desperately needed help, even if he couldn't ask for it. Now, more than ever, Yami wanted to give that help; he needed to.

With that on his mind, Yami willed himself out of his soul room and went in search of Kaiba. He wasn't sure what he was going to do once he found Kaiba, but he knew that he had to find him.

When he reached the downstairs guest room where Kaiba and Mokuba were supposed to be sleeping, Yami was surprised to see that only Mokuba was in the room. The boy was on the bed, curled up on his side, fast asleep. The other half of the bed had not been disturbed, which meant that Kaiba hadn't even attempted to sleep. Yami looked around the room again, but found it empty. Confused, and a little worried, Yami let himself out of the room and headed for the living room. He found that it, too, was empty. He moved through the kitchen and dining areas, but didn't find Kaiba there either. Could Kaiba have left the house after everyone had gone to bed?

Yami was heading towards the back yard to check outside for any sign of Kaiba when he spotted light coming from underneath the door to a room he hadn't checked. It was a small room next to the area of the house used for washing clothes and extra food storage. He headed in that direction and willed himself inside the room as soon as he reached it. When he did, he found himself inside a small, half bathroom. It must have been built there to accommodate the guest room the Kaibas were currently occupying. Directly in front of him, he spotted Kaiba sitting on the floor, his back to the wall. His long legs were stretched out in front of him.

Yami didn't have to worry about being spotted, because Yugi was usually the only person who could see him when he was in this state. It didn't make much of a difference, however, since, even though Kaiba's eyes were open, they really weren't seeing his current surroundings. Yami got further into the room so that he was standing beside Kaiba, and noticed that the bandages Mr. Moto had applied to his hand had been taken off. The hand was clenched into a fist and resting on the floor. Underneath it, a small pool of blood had already formed on the white tiles from the still bleeding gashes.

From a distance, Kaiba had looked as if he were simply sitting there, staring at the walls. Now that Yami was closer, he could tell that Kaiba's body was tense and shaking slightly. Kaiba had taken off his white coat and discarded it on the floor beside him, and even though Kaiba's clothing was black, the trembling was still visible.

Yami examined Kaiba's face carefully, but it revealed nothing more than a clenched jaw and unfocused eyes. Whatever Kaiba was looking at, it wasn't anywhere near this bathroom, or even this particular time period. Kaiba suddenly gasped, and his head snapped backwards and collided with the wall behind him. The soft thump echoed around the room, but Kaiba didn't notice. The muscles in Kaiba's neck were stretched, as if his head was being held down by something, or someone, and the previously emotionless face now revealed stark terror. The teenager in front of him took a big breath and opened his mouth as if to scream, but the scream was choked off before it even began.

Yami's heart had begun to pound, and he felt Kaiba's terror reaching for him, twisting something inside of him that he'd never though he'd feel for the young man sitting before him. He felt helpless, because he couldn't even reach out and touch Kaiba to shake him out of the nightmare he was trapped in. He also felt fiercely protective, as he had with Yugi so many times, and he wished that he could take over and endure whatever this was so that Kaiba didn't have to. That last feeling left him confused, but Yami shut that out of his mind for the moment.

At last, Kaiba seemed to come back to himself. His blue eyes focused once again, and when Yami looked at them closely, he saw that they were full of tears. Kaiba blinked, and the tears fell down his cheeks in thin rivulets. Kaiba brought his knees up to his chest and buried his face in them, but Yami could hear the soft sobs regardless, as well as something else Kaiba kept repeating to himself.

"I can't do this," he said softly, "I can't afford to do this."

As Yami watched, Kaiba's posture changed, and he visibly pulled himself together. It started with the shoulders, then the back, and then he lifted his head and the vulnerability it had held only minutes before was gone, replaced by the expression Yami was used to seeing. The effect would have been perfect, if not for the tears that were still falling down Kaiba's cheeks. As if Kaiba had just noticed those, he wiped his face with his good hand and quickly erased the evidence of his earlier break down. He lifted his still bleeding hand and watched the blood drip onto the floor for a few moments, before getting off the floor. He grabbed a washcloth and cleaned the blood off of his hand, and then did the same to the floor until the white tiles were spotless and there was no evidence that he had even been there. He picked up his coat from the floor and quickly left the room.

Yami was rooted to his spot, unsure of what he should do next. He still couldn't believe what he'd just seen, or how it had made him feel. The rage at whoever had done this to Kaiba returned in full force, and it was this that finally allowed him to leave the room. He expected Kaiba to head back towards where Mokuba was sleeping, and he wasn't disappointed. Kaiba had kneeled beside the bed so that his face was level with Mokuba's sleeping one. He reached up and brushed the stray hairs out of his brother's face and then leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Mokuba's forehead.

"The Motos will take care of you, Mokuba," Kaiba whispered to his sleeping brother. "I'm sorry, but I have something I have to finish."

Kaiba got up and walked out of the room. By the time Yami left the room, Kaiba had reached the back door and had stepped out into the yard. Yugi's earlier panic at Kaiba's disappearance suddenly made sense, and Yami didn't want Kaiba to be alone either, because he had a feeling that Kaiba was going home, to Gozaburo. He had to stop him somehow, but he didn't want to have to wake Yugi, or anyone else, to do it. He had to find a way and had to find it fast.

* * *

As soon as he'd gently closed the back door behind him, Kaiba noticed that it had gotten colder since he'd been out in the back yard with Yugi. He put his coat on, but it didn't help very much. He wrapped his arms around himself in a gesture he rarely indulged in and took a deep breath. When he released it, he was dismayed to hear the shakiness of it. Being outside helped with the overwhelming sense of helplessness he'd just experienced. He hadn't been trying to remember, but he couldn't help remembering. It was as if his mind had decided to pause on a brief portion of his life and keep replaying it over and over again. He tried to forget it, tried to put it at the back of his mind like he'd done all of the other unpleasant things in his life, but this wouldn't cooperate and go away. Every time he recalled it, every time he re-lived it, he felt a part of his soul being torn away. Before long, there would be nothing left of him, and he didn't want to be around Mokuba when that happened.

He shouldn't have come here in the first place. He should have followed through with his plan and stayed at Kaiba Corp. to wait for Gozaburo. Now, he was going to have to go to the mansion and meet Gozaburo on much shakier terms. It didn't matter, though. At least the game he and Gozaburo played was something that he knew very well. He'd learned it the hard way, after all. He knew what to expect, what to do, and how to react. It would keep him on guard, and it would keep his mind working. That's what he needed: he needed less time to think.

Kaiba turned around, gave the silent house one last look, and then walked to the back gate. He shivered, but dismissed it. He had a long walk ahead of him and had no doubt that he'd get used to the cold in the time it took him to get back to the Kaiba mansion. He could have gone out the front door, but he felt safer going out the back, where no one was likely to be paying attention.

Kaiba was almost to the trashcan he'd found Yugi by earlier when he felt a presence behind him. His heart began to hammer in his chest and he felt the urge to run. He swallowed the fear down and slowly turned around to find that there was no one there. He frowned. His instincts were rarely off, and he had clearly felt someone standing behind him. He shook his head, and berated himself for his stupidity and his childishness. He couldn't go around seeing things, sensing people behind him when there was no one there, simply because of one incident. He couldn't afford to be that weak, especially now.

Dismissing the incident, Kaiba resumed his walk. He made it all the way to the trashcan before he felt the presence again, this time beside him. He turned and again found no one. This wasn't his imagination. He wasn't quite himself, but he wasn't too far gone that he would start imagining things.

"Whoever you are, be a man and stop hiding," Kaiba growled at the empty backyard.

His eyes scanned the entire yard for signs of where the person might be hiding. It had to be someone from the house, but who could it be? Yugi was short and could hide well, not to mention that this was his backyard and he knew every hiding place, but Kaiba didn't think that Yugi would play this kind of trick on him. Mr. Moto was too old to move this fast, and Mokuba would never do this to him. That left Yami. Kaiba may have disliked Yami, but he did respect the spirit. If Yami had business with him, he would confront him directly, not hide like a coward.

After a few moments, Kaiba realized that the presence hadn't left his side, unlike the last time. He tentatively reached out with his hand and was surprised that the temperature changed slightly a few feet off to his left. What the hell was going on?

"Kaiba."

Kaiba jumped at the sound of the voice. It hadn't been loud, but it had come from nowhere.

"Yami?" Kaiba asked, angry at the whole situation, but angrier at himself for the fear he felt and because Yami had probably seen it as well.

"I am trying to appear solid to you, but that is very hard without the use of Yugi's body. It is especially hard when I am this far from the Millennium Puzzle."

Slowly, Kaiba could see the outline of Yami's 'body' appear beside him. It was really hard to see with only the moonlight, but Yami seemed to have an inner glow, a golden radiance that set him apart from the surroundings. After a few minutes, Yami had partly materialized. He'd apparently concentrated his efforts on his head and face, because Kaiba could see his face clearly, even though the rest of the body was almost invisible.

"What do you want? Shouldn't you be in the puzzle or something?" Kaiba asked flippantly, trying to disguise the fact that Yami had frightened him. There was no way in hell he'd ever let Yami know that he could have that effect on him.

"I can't let you leave," was all Yami said.

Kaiba's defenses immediately came up. "Who are you to decide what I do?" he asked, his voice low, but deadly serious.

"You need to be here with us, with your brother, Kaiba. Gozaburo has nothing for you."

Kaiba's jaw clenched, as did his fists. Who did Yami think he was? Kaiba was about to say something flippant, something cutting, but Yami's next words left him speechless.

"I wasn't right about what I told you in Egypt," Yami said, his face as serious as Kaiba had ever seen it. "You don't disgust me and you don't deserve to be left alone. I am sorry for saying that to you."

Kaiba snorted, dismissing the apology. "There's nothing to apologize for," he said when his words finally returned to him. He was surprised that Yami had apologized, but it didn't really make much of a difference, not when Yami had been right. "You spoke your mind, spoke the truth, and I don't blame you."

Yami's face contorted, and if Kaiba hadn't known any better, he would have sworn that the emotion currently contorting Yami's face was guilt.

"I wasn't right, Kaiba. I accused you of deliberately leaving Yugi to be taken by Bakura, but now I know that wasn't the case."

The last sentence caused the blood to drain from Kaiba's face, but Yami didn't seem to notice.

"What do you think you know?" Kaiba asked, and it took a great deal of effort to keep his voice from shaking.

Yami still hadn't noticed the effect his words had on Kaiba, and he quickly continued. "I know that you were attacked. I hadn't realized the extent of the injuries until today and I had been mistaken about my assumptions. I spoke in anger and pain, and I shouldn't have said those words to you."

Kaiba's ears began to ring. Yami knew? It wasn't possible. Yami couldn't know about what had happened, since he and Yugi were the only ones that had been there and they'd made a deal to not tell anyone. Had Yugi reneged on the deal? Had he told Yami anyway? Kaiba's whole body began to tremble, and he had to fight the urge to run.

"Yugi told you," Kaiba finally managed to say. It wasn't a question, because that was the only way Yami would know about what had happened that day.

Yami looked at him carefully this time and must have finally noticed the reaction his words had received, because he shook his head.

"No, Yugi didn't tell me anything. He's sleeping," Yami began, "I was worried about him and went into his soul room while he slept. I saw that day in the desert through his eyes. I took advantage of the fact that his soul room was unlocked, that was my fault. Don't blame him for something he knows nothing about." Yami paused, thought about what he wanted to say, and finally decided to say it. "Look, Kaiba, I just want to help, and I don't think that you should leave."

The ringing in his ears became so loud that Kaiba almost didn't hear the last part of what Yami had said. The words were like physical blows. Yami knew. His adversary, his one-time enemy, knew what had been done to him; had seen how those bastards had used him; had seen how powerless he'd been to stop them. The humiliation and shame burning through him had taken away his ability to speak. Yami was looking at him strangely and Kaiba couldn't stand to have Yami's eyes on him. He wanted to turn away, to make Yami turn away, but he couldn't move.

"I should have been able to protect the two of you from what happened, and I failed you both," Yami continued when Kaiba didn't say anything. "I can't take back what happened, but I want to help."

There. In the moonlight, Kaiba saw the flicker cross Yami's eyes. It was enough to push the shame aside in favor of another emotion, one he was more familiar with: anger.

"I don't want your pity," Kaiba finally forced out, "and I don't need your help. Tell Yugi when he wakes up that I'm going to be a man and keep my end of the deal, even if he couldn't keep his."

Kaiba turned around and slowly began to walk the rest of the way to the back gate. He wanted to run, to get away from Yami's eyes, which he could feel piercing his back, but he forced himself to take one slow step after another. He wasn't going to give Yami the satisfaction of watching him run, not when he'd already had the satisfaction of seeing him in another, more vulnerable, position.

"You don't understand," Yami called after him. "Kaiba, I don't pity you. Both you and Yugi are hurting, and we're all here to help and support you. There's nothing shameful about that. Please, Kaiba, come back inside the house and we can talk about this. I don't want you to leave."

A part of Kaiba desperately wanted to believe Yami's words, but the other part of him, the one that had dealt with the cruelties of the world, knew that words were only that: words. They could be used to persuade, to heal, but at the same time, they could be used to stab you in the back, to break your heart. He knew better than to believe in empty words, no matter how tempting they were.

He kept walking away, doing the only thing he knew how: protect himself through distance. Maybe Yami would get the hint and disappear.

"What about your brother? Are you just going kiss him on the forehead and then leave him?"

The words brought Kaiba to a halt, and the anger he'd been feeling swiftly turned to rage.

"You were watching?" Kaiba asked.

Yami didn't reply. Kaiba finally did turn around, because he thought that Yami had disappeared. Instead, Kaiba found Yami staring at the ground, at the back of the house, anywhere but at him.

"How dare you intrude on my privacy like that?" Kaiba growled.

How long had Yami watched? Had it just been the interaction with his brother, or before? Had Yami seen him cry? Kaiba pushed the panic that threatened to overtake him again down and covered himself with his rage. It had always made a good shield and it wouldn't fail him now.

"What gives you the right?"

Yami finally looked up, and his face had lost a bit of its consistency, as if Yami couldn't hold his form any longer.

"I was worried," Yami finally admitted in a soft voice. "I went to look for you to… I don't know what I was going to do. I didn't mean to intrude, but…" Yami trailed off once again.

"Are you happy then?" Kaiba finally asked.

"Am I happy about what?" Yami asked, clearly confused.

"You've won, Yami. Everything you said about me in Egypt was right, as you've now seen. I am disgusting, and I do deserve to be left alone, because I'm weak; they certainly proved that I was. Everything I've done, all of the power I've accumulated, did nothing for me back there. I couldn't lift a finger to keep them from doing what they did to me. Go back inside and gloat, Yami. You've won."

Kaiba pulled open the back gate and took off running down the alley. He didn't care that Yami was watching, didn't give a damn what the spirit thought anymore, because he already knew what Yami thought of him. It was no different than what he thought of himself.

* * *

"High Priest, the Pharaoh has requested your presence in the throne room."

High Priest Seto didn't acknowledge the servant, and the man eventually went away. He should go to the throne room, or else the pharaoh was going to get angry at being kept waiting and would probably come looking for him. Seto definitely wanted to avoid that, because by the time Yami got to the room the high priest used as an office, he would be seething and that would not be a good sight to behold. The priest remained sitting, however, staring at the book of spells his double, the pharaoh's double, and Yugi had come after.

He had gotten back form his impromptu trip to the bandit camp a few hours ago and had been in this room ever since. He hadn't seen Yami then and had been informed that the pharaoh had gone to the temple to meditate. Seto had been glad that Yami hadn't been there to greet him, because he wasn't quite sure how to explain to the pharaoh why he'd decided to go out there. He still didn't know why he'd done it, just that he'd felt that he had to. He wasn't sure if he was glad he had gone or if he regretted it. After all, now he couldn't get their visitors out of his mind.

Seto ran his hand over the worn cover of the book one more time, before placing it on the table in front of him and fishing the silver buckle out of the pocket of his robe. He traced the raised symbols on the buckle, wondering what they could mean. The material was strangely durable and smooth, unlike anything they currently had. Seto wondered why it had remained behind when their visitors had left. It had remained as a reminder of what he had inadvertently caused. He would take the incident back if he could. If there was some way for his magic to turn back time, he would do everything in his power to make sure that his double did not get taken by the bandits. He had considered the possibility and had even looked through his books to see if it were possible. The double's existence alone was impossible, and he had eventually come to the conclusion that their appearance in this time had been their doing, not anything Seto or the pharaoh had done. He could no more turn back time and prevent Seto Kaiba from being attacked than he could bring back the dead.

"You look very pensive, Priest," the pharaoh said, his voice clearly conveying his displeasure at having been made to leave his throne and come in search of the priest.

Seto didn't bother to look away from the buckle. He had heard Yami's footsteps as he'd neared the room and had realized that he'd spent more time that he'd wanted contemplating the situation. It would now be useless to try to smooth the situation over. If Yami was angry that his command was not followed, Seto didn't care. He'd had other, more pressing, issues to deal with. Seto waited until Yami had walked into the room before he set the buckle on top of the spell book and gave his pharaoh his undivided attention.

Pharaoh Yami regarded him in silence for a moment, and Seto could see the pharaoh's anger slowly dissipate, until only concern was left on his face.

"Do you want to talk about what is bothering you?" the pharaoh asked.

Seto almost smiled. Yami could turn from enraged to concern in a heart beat, which was a good thing most of the time. The pharaoh was a good man, and Seto was more than happy to serve him. He didn't regret turning down Akunadin's offer, not as much as he would have thought.

When Seto didn't reply, the pharaoh walked around the table until he was standing in front of Seto, and in front of the book and the buckle. He picked up the buckle and examined it, much as Seto had been doing earlier.

"You were thinking about our visitors," Yami stated.

"I was," the high priest replied.

Yami examined the buckle for a while longer, before replacing it on top of the book. He walked around the room, apparently examining the many books Seto had piled on the various tables, but Seto knew that Yami wasn't really looking at anything. He was trying to figure out how to bring up whatever was on his mind. The high priest watched the pharaoh and let him wander around the room; let him take the time he needed.

"I was unable to meditate today," Pharaoh Yami finally said. "My mind refused to leave them."

Seto raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. Yami was not a cold hearted man, and it had been obvious that he had resented the way the visitors had left. He and his double had not exactly parted on the best of terms, and Seto could tell that it bothered Yami. The pharaoh would have preferred a chance to talk to his double, Kaiba, and Yugi, and make some sort of amend for what happened, but he had not been given the chance. Yami's honor, much as Seto's own, would not be satisfied until proper reparations were seen to. That couldn't happen if the pharaoh's double, Kaiba, and Yugi were not there.

"What do you think really happened to Yugi and Kaiba in the desert?" Yami asked.

Seto opened his mouth to respond, but then shut it. He was glad that Yami was not facing him, because Yami had a way of making him talk, and the high priest didn't want to divulge any more about what had happened to Kaiba than he had to. Kaiba may not be here, but Seto would take that particular secret to his grave. He would expect Kaiba to do the same if their positions were reversed.

"They were probably beaten," the high priest finally said. "We saw the evidence when we found Kaiba, at least. I don't know about Yugi, because when we found him, the thief Bakura and his demon had done a lot of damage to him."

The pharaoh turned around and pierced the high priest with a look that always managed to make him feel like a child.

"You had a run in with Hori, when one of your guards raped his sister," the pharaoh said. "You said yourself that he wanted revenge."

The high priest shrugged. "I was not there, and Kaiba had nothing to do with what happened to Hori's sister. The man had no reason to retaliate against him."

Yami continued to look at the priest, until the priest had to look away. Luckily, Yami did not press the issue.

"I had the palace guards scout the desert for Hori and his band, but they did not find anything. It seems that Hori and his men just disappeared."

"Yes, it looks that way," Seto agreed.

Silence fell over the two once again. Yami continued his slow circle around the priest's office, while Seto remained where he was and stared at the silver buckle. When Yami had finished his circuit and was back in front of Seto, he put his hand over the buckle and pierced the high priest with another stare.

"If you are planning on following them to their time, I am going with you."

Pharaoh Yami did not wait for a reply. Instead, he turned on his heel and walked out of the room. High Priest Seto stared after him, wondering when he had become so transparent to the pharaoh. When he was a few feet away from the door, Yami paused and turned his head back to look at Seto out of the corner of his eye.

"I suggest we go as soon as possible. Magical traces do not last very long, after all."

With that, he was gone.

Seto continued to stare out into the hallway long after the pharaoh had vacated it. He no longer had to make a decision; it had just been made for him.

* * *

Kaiba finally had to stop running when he could no longer draw a breath. He bent over with his hands on his knees and took deep, shaky breaths. He began to feel light headed, so he had to sit on the slightly wet grass beside the sidewalk he'd been running on. The ringing in his ears had not subsided, and it was now accompanied by painful throbbing. His head also throbbed in rhythm with his heart, and Kaiba felt as if it would split in two at any moment. He welcomed the pain, because it redirected his attention to something tangible, something that could keep his mind from going into places it shouldn't go into.

When he had regained his breath, Kaiba finally looked up and was surprised to find that he was sitting right outside of the Kaiba mansion, within touching distance of the front gates. He wasn't sure how long he'd been running, but it had to have been a while, since Yugi's house was twenty minutes away by car. The thought of Yugi, and Yami, brought what had happened at the Moto backyard to mind, and Kaiba shoved it away. He was standing right outside of the lion's den, and he had to have all of his wits about him if he was about to enter. He took another deep breath and then stood up.

"Seto Kaiba," he announced to the computer that guarded the front gate.

It processed his voice patterns, matched them with those on file, and opened the gates.

"Welcome home, Mr. Kaiba," the female computer voice said.

"I bet Gozaburo really liked that," Kaiba said sarcastically.

He took his time walking up the path to the front of the mansion. It was late and there were very few lights on inside the house. The staff was more than likely sleeping and if there was anyone still awake, it would be Gozaburo. If he was home at all, that is. Gozaburo might not have returned to the mansion at all, choosing to go to Kaiba Corp. instead. Kaiba shrugged. It didn't matter where Gozaburo was. They would come face to face sooner or later.

When he reached the front doors, he went through the same method of authentication. He wondered what Gozaburo had done to disable the security, if he had managed to get inside. When the computer released the lock on the doors, Kaiba pushed them open and let himself in. The front room was well lit, as it always was, even if the rooms beyond it were not.

Kaiba made his way across the room and up the stairs. He was almost to the top when he heard a door downstairs, in the direction of what had been Gozaburo's office, slam shut. He continued climbing the stairs, until a voice stopped him cold.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" Gozaburo yelled.

Slowly, deliberately slow, even through the rapid beating of his heart and the shaking of his hands, Kaiba turned around and looked Gozaburo in the eye.

"I live here," Kaiba said.

"You seem to have hurt yourself on the way home," Gozaburo pointed out.

Kaiba looked down at his hand, which was still bleeding. He held it out, palm first, for Gozaburo to see.

"It's nothing that a little alcohol and a few bandages won't fix," he said, repeating a phrase Gozaburo had said to him many times after he'd been beaten. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going up to my room."

Kaiba climbed the remaining stairs, entered his room and slammed the door shut behind him.

"Let the games begin."

* * *

Next up: I can't engage my brain enough to think of what's next. Morning, I think. Yami throws things… Yugi freaks… Mokuba freaks even more… Gozaburo and Kaiba have breakfast. I can picture that one… it's going to be fun (in a sick and twisted sort of way). Until next time! 


	30. The Road to Perdition

Greetings!

Long time no see, I know… but to make up for it, this is an extra long chapter. It's right around 18 pages, I believe, so it'll give you a bit to sink your teeth into. I realize that not all of you like the length of the last few chapters. I've heard that it even annoys some people, but I figure if I'm going to be updating every few months, I might as well give you something worth reading.

Ahem! Anyway, I hope that everyone is still enjoying the story. There is a recap before the beginning of the chapter, to refresh everyone's memories of the story.

Reviews:

**Luthien-Ikari**: Thank you for the compliment! I try to keep the characters as original as I can, but I still take quite a few liberties with them… it wouldn't be fun if I didn't.

**Anayas-Creater**: Oops… I didn't mean to make you cry!

**Mimiheart**: Thanks for the review!

**S.K**: Gozaburo would never kill Seto on the spot… he likes toying with the boy too much and outright killing him would just be no fun. Believe me, Gozaburo has other plans. About Yami: He tends to act a bit out of his norm when he's feeling guilty or responsible for something. I think a little bit of that is leaking into how he's reacting towards Kaiba. Oh, the two plot lines will definitely clash… it wouldn't be fun if they didn't. Thank you so much for the review.

**Shadowwaker:** LOL! Yami as the Cheshire cat, huh? I had visions of Yami in white fur when I read that… About Seto ignoring Gozaburo: it's a power play. In his own twisted way, Seto is establishing that he's not the kid who would jump and Gozaburo's every command. At least that was the intent. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

**Mutou Yasu**: So much guilt is right… they're very passionate people, though, and tend to take things very seriously.

**Nenya85**: I think that the reason I was so inclined to have Mokuba and Seto at the Moto's house was because of how alien it would be to them. They don't know what it's like to have someone cook for them, look after them, and just make sure that they're 'there'. This really got me from your review: _"I had to wonder if the closest Kaiba had ever come to having someone watch over him while he was sleeping was Yugi covering him with his coat in the desert"_ I completely agree. I mean, Seto is the type to not want anyone to watch him sleeping, but there is a reason why he is that way… that's the heartbreaking part.

Here's hoping that you're not going to feel like yelling at me when you've finished reading this chapter!

**BH**: You're absolutely right about Yami: you can think you understand something, sympathize with it, but it will not be the same unless you were there or you were the one experiencing it. The same can be said for Yugi too. Yes, he was there, but he wasn't the one who was attacked. He has a little more information, but he'll never truly understand. Seto is a man who knows himself well, which in this particular case, will not work to his favor. Gozaburo is familiar, and Seto knows that he can beat him. That's comforting, in a time where he'll take anything he can get.

Your reviews are never harassing! In fact, they will usually guilt trip me into writing more. Things have just been really crazy lately and the time to write just hasn't been there. I hope that you enjoy this chapter as well! Thanks!

**Midnightdragoness: **I'm glad that you took the time to check the story out and are enjoying it so far! I am a fan of Kaiba/Yugi, but it won't be in this story. I have another one for that…lol! Thanks for the review!

**Only-a-minor-threat**: Thanks for the review! It's amazing what you can tell yourself, when you're guilt ridden. Yugi is not used to being violent, which is a bit part of why he's having such a hard time dealing with what happened.

**Bayleef:** I'm very glad that you like the fic. I wish there was some way to transfer some of that energy my way… I could sure use it.

**FireFairy**: I'm hoping this next chapter is good… I'm not sure, I'm getting into some of the darker stuff, so it's always a gamble. I'm hoping to still have some readers left after this.

**Trempush**: I'm very glad to hear that you get into the story! I mean, I'm doing a good job if that's the case, so thanks for letting me know. By the way, have I ever told you that I like the way you think? You're very perceptive, which is very cool. Stay tuned!

**Lazerwulf**: Thank you for the review! Don't sweat it; I totally understand making deals with yourself… I do that a lot. Well, I used to, when I was writing a lot more consistently than I am now. I will definitely give your fics a shot, I just haven't had much time lately. Seto and Gozaburo are going to have fun playing games with each other, though I have to admit that writing it is really hard. I hope it doesn't turn out completely laughable.

**PyroKittyKat**: Uh, oh… I hope that this update made it to you before you lost all of your sanity. Thanks for reviewing!

**Light Bearer Lucifer**: Wow, thank you very much for giving the story a shot and for sticking with it. It's very long, and not getting any shorter, unfortunately. I hope that you continue to enjoy it and it was great to hear from you!

**Ministirth**: Whew! 8 hours is a long time to be sitting down in front of a computer, but I'm very flattered that you were willing to do that. Thanks! I'm so glad that you enjoyed the story and I really hope that you continue to do so. Thanks for taking the time to write me a review.

**Yugirules**: I know, it's been such a long while… I've gotten so bad with my updating that it's not even funny. I remember a time when I used to update once a week. I miss those days! Anyway, I hope that this update wasn't too long in coming and that you enjoy it!

**AmunRa Fan**: You know, I had a huge grin on my face for about ten minutes after I read your review. Questions are good! Hopefully, they'll make you keep reading. That's my evil plan, after all… :o)

**Bnomiko**: Thank you very much for giving my story a shot! I appreciate it and I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I sometimes wonder if all the angst is going to get on people's nerves, but I'm glad that it's not. I hope that you enjoy this chapter as well, and thanks for taking the time to review!

I love my reviewers… especially since I've become so horrible at updating. Thank you all so much for putting up with me. I will finish this story darn it, or die trying!

Recap: Yami got the shock of his life, but inadvertently pushed Kaiba away when he tried to help. Mr. Moto got to see a bit of Yugi's pain and the pharaoh and high priest decided to take a little trip to the future.

Enjoy! Oh, and for those of you who are curious, Intruders is up to 355 pages. Amazing that I've gotten that far and not accomplished much.

* * *

**Chapter 30: The Road to Perdition**

The room faded in and out of his vision.

The sunlight filtering in through the windows caught the dust floating in the air, making it seem as it if were snowing in the middle of his room.

'The maids aren't doing their job,' he thought. 'The room is dusty.'

He raised his hand to grab a handful of the floating flakes, but they eluded him. Instead, they chose to rest on a cleaner, unsoiled surface. He settled for examining his hand in the early morning sunlight. His fingers were long and slender, the palm white and smooth, remarkably unmarred by scars or imperfections. He brought up his other hand, coated with long dried blood, the palm marred where the pieces of porcelain had cut him. Night and day, black and white, bloody and clean... his hands perfectly reflected the state of his soul. His hands had one held immeasurable power in their grasp. He flexed the fingers of both hands, wondering where the strength and power he'd fought long and hard for had gone.

A knock on his door pulled him out of his musings. When he didn't answer, the knock came once again.

"Mr. Kaiba, breakfast will be served in a half hour."

Instead of answering the maid, he directed his attention to his dirty and rumpled clothing. He couldn't go down to breakfast and face Gozaburo looking like a stray dog that had been dragged in from the street. He was Seto Kaiba, after all. He had to look the part. He pulled himself out of the position he'd been in, on top of his bed with his knees pulled up to his chest, and went into his closet, where he pulled out a fresh pair of black slacks, a black turtleneck, and a burgundy coat. He then went into the bathroom, where he shed his shoes and clothing and took a quick shower. He didn't let himself linger on the thoughts that passed through his mind in the process of bathing and ignored the way his own hands scrubbing his chest and legs brought memories of other hands, being a lot less gentle than he was being now. He ignored the temperature of the water as he made it as hot as he could stand it, as well as the redness as he scrubbed at skin that could not be cleaned. His palm began to bleed anew, but he didn't notice. He was seeing another place, another time, another stream of blood.

After what could have been minutes or hours, he turned off the water, stepped out of the shower and dried himself, leaving bloody imprints in the pristine, white towels that had been left in his bathroom. He wrapped a towel around his waist and took out the medical supplies he still kept stocked underneath the sink. Like a pro, he applied butterfly bandages to the individual cuts on his palm, before wrapping the entire hand in gauze. When he was satisfied that he wasn't going to get blood on his clothing, he got dressed. Fog had accumulated in the mirror over the sink, so he used the towel he'd taken from his waist to clean it off, only to find a stranger staring back at him from the mirror.

Kaiba looked at the reflection for a long moment, his sleep deprived mind trying to make something out of the haunted, hollow reflection he was seeing. The person in the mirror was not him; it could not be him. He couldn't look as lost as the reflection looked. There were deep, dark circles under his eyes, and his cheeks were hollow, to go along with pale skin which stood out even more due to the darkness of the coat he was wearing. He shook his head, willing the image to go away, but it didn't. Instead, water from his wet hair hit the mirror where the cheeks of the reflection were, making it appear as if his reflection were crying. He purposely avoided looking at the eyes. He didn't want to see what they reflected.

"Stupid," he muttered to himself, disgusted.

He took a deep breath and forced the reflection to become more to his liking. He stared at it until the shoulders straightened, the chin pointed forward in defiance, and the face attained the mask with which he had faced the world since his mother had died. Only then, when the persona of Seto Kaiba, billionaire game developer, was back in place, did he leave the room and make his way to breakfast.

* * *

Something was off. 

Yugi knew it the moment his eyes opened. He sat up on the bed, not remembering how he'd ended up falling asleep in the first place. He thought back to the night before and remembered being too caught up in his thoughts to sleep, until his grandfather had come into the room. Shame washed over him as he remembered how weak and childish he'd been while with his grandfather. Yugi also remembered how close he had come to spilling his guts and telling his grandfather the truth. His grandfather had assured him that he would still be loved no matter what, but Yugi didn't think that he'd ever be forgiven for murder, no matter how good his grandfather's intentions were.

Shaking himself out of his morose thoughts, Yugi focused once again on the tension around him. Something had definitely happened during the night.

"Let go of me, old man!"

The child's voice came through loud and clear, and Yugi was out of bed before he'd even registered that he'd moved. The panic in the voice was so apparent that it sent chills down Yugi's spine, which only served to confirm the premonition he'd had upon waking. He reached for the Millennium Puzzle, slipped it over his neck, and raced out of his room. When he got downstairs, he found his grandfather barely managing to hold back a struggling Mokuba Kaiba. Mokuba's objective seemed to be the open front door, but the elder Moto was doing his best to keep the young man from reaching it.

"You will not accomplish anything if you go after him like this, Mokuba," his grandfather said calmly and Yugi felt as if ice had been forced into his lungs.

"What's going on," Yugi asked as he reached the struggling pair.

Mokuba turned to him, his hair wild, his gray eyes wide and full of fear, and tears. "My brother is gone," he said. "I woke up and Seto was gone."

Yugi was not entirely surprised by the statement, but it did hit him hard nonetheless. It also sent a stab of fear through his heart. What the hell was Kaiba up to now? Yugi had a feeling that he knew where Kaiba had gone, and he could see in Mokuba's eyes that the boy did too.

"You think he went back to the mansion, don't you? Yugi asked.

Mokuba nodded, and he looked like the fight had been knocked out of him. Yugi's grandfather released the boy, who wrapped his arms around himself in an effort to console his distress. Yugi's grandfather, seeing the gesture, wrapped his wrinkled arms around Mokuba, who uncharacteristically sank into the embrace, even though he didn't exactly return it. After letting himself be held a moment, Mokuba's face seemed to harden, too much like his brother's face often did, and he stepped away from both Yugi and his grandfather.

"I'm sure he went back to the mansion," Mokuba said. "He said last night that he had to beat Gozaburo once and for all, and going back into that is the way he'd choose to do it."

Yugi swallowed the lump in his throat. Kaiba was in no condition to deal with even more than he already had on his mind, but it was very like him to go and deal with it anyway. The question now was how were they going to get to him and bring him back?

"Going off by yourself isn't going to help your brother, Mokuba," Yugi said. "If anything, it would give Gozaburo more to hold against Kaiba."

Mokuba closed his eyes and his face scrunched up in pain. "Yeah, that's what he did before," Mokuba said softly, as if he were talking to himself.

"You don't want to give the man the chance, then," Mr. Moto said. "You're more than welcome to stay here for as long as necessary, young man. We'll get through this together, you'll see."

Yugi nodded in agreement, thankful for his grandfather's help. His mind was going around in circles that he didn't think that he'd have been able to think clearly through the situation had he and Mokuba been on their own. He shouldn't have left Kaiba alone. Yugi was sure that it would have irritated Kaiba to no end to be constantly watched, but after the incident at dinner, Yugi should have made sure that someone was watching Kaiba at all times.

A thought suddenly occurred to him and he reached into the puzzle to where Yami's presence rested in the confines of his soul room. Once he had made sure that the spirit was paying attention, he sent his message.

/Yami, did you happen to see or hear Kaiba leave sometime last night/ Yugi asked. /I must have fallen asleep, but I know that sometimes you like to get out of the puzzle at night and wander around the house, so I was wondering if you knew anything./

An almost overwhelming wave of guilt swept over Yugi, and for a moment, he though it was his own guilt he was experiencing. The emotion was different, however, more focused and with a different mental trace than his usually was. It left him confused, until he realized that he was feeling Yami's guilt and not his own.

/Yami/

Before Yami replied, Yugi's attention was diverted to his grandfather, who was ushering Mokuba back into the kitchen.

"We're going to make breakfast, Yugi," his grandfather said. "Go upstairs and wash up while we prepare it."

Yugi nodded and watched them leave. He made his way back upstairs and into his room. Once he'd sat himself down on his bed again, he willed himself into the puzzle. The guilt hadn't faded entirely from the link he shared with Yami, and Yugi prepared himself to have to force Yami to open the door to his soul room and let Yugi in. Instead, he was surprised to find Yami already waiting in Yugi's soul room. One look at the spirit and Yugi's chest tightened even more.

"I saw Kaiba last night."

Yugi's eyes widened, but Yami was not looking at him. It took him a while to respond.

"What happened? Why did he leave?" Yugi asked.

Yami finally did look at Yugi, and when he did, his face was tinged with guilt, self loathing, and regret, three emotions that Yugi was not used to seeing on the proud spirit's face.

"Kaiba was raped, wasn't he?"

The question took Yugi's breath away. He froze where he was, his lips slightly parted in surprise. When he didn't speak, Yami repeated his question.

"In Egypt, that's what the bandits did to him, isn't it? That's why he couldn't fight Bakura, why he was so injured when we found him?"

Yugi had to force his lungs to expand and take in oxygen. For a long while, he couldn't find his voice to speak. When he did, it was barely above a whisper.

"How did you find out?" Yugi asked, already dreading the answer. Kaiba's sudden desire to leave in the middle of the night didn't seem so puzzling anymore.

"I saw it here, in your soul room," Yami answered, his eyes once again avoiding Yugi's as he motioned to the room around them. "You were sleeping and left the door unlocked."

Betrayal hit him so hard that Yugi actually staggered back a few steps. He put a hand out to stop his movement and touched a wall. He backed up until his back was leaning against it. He suddenly felt lightheaded and had to force himself to breathe again. Yami turned to him, the spirit's eyes wide with regret and apology for what he'd done. It didn't lessen the impact, however. Betrayal was slowly edging towards anger, which kept Yugi silent. He stared at the spirit, his protector and friend, and wished that he could go back in time and be more careful about his own mind, his own nightmares.

Panic suddenly pushed itself to the forefront of his raging emotions. If Yami knew about Kaiba, had seen it in his soul room, had he also seen what Yugi had done? Did he already know that Yugi was a murderer? Yugi willed the anger back to the front, because it gave him strength, unlike the panic that wanted to crawl up his throat and out as a scream. He clenched his hands into fists, letting the nails dig into his palms. He used the pain as an anchor to pull him out of the hole he was slowly being pulled into.

"Yugi, say something, please," Yami said. "I am sorry for what I did, but I was concerned because you would not talk to me." The spirit got up to head towards Yugi, but stopped when Yugi shook his head. "It does not excuse what I have done, I know, but I thought you should know the reason behind my actions."

It didn't matter. The reason didn't matter, the fact was that Yami had violated his privacy, his trust, had walked into something that he had no right walking into.

"I promised," Yugi finally said, his voice soft, but edged with anger. "I promised him that no one would ever know, and you've broken that promise for me," Yugi said. "Did you tell him that you knew, is that why he left?"

Yami reacted as if Yugi had physically slapped him. He took a step back and dropped his eyes from Yugi's.

"I'm sorry, Yugi."

When Yugi's eyes began to burn, he forced the tears away. He clenched his jaw and forced himself to keep the anger at bay. It scared him, really scared him, because he'd never felt this angry, this betrayed, before. He couldn't look Yami in the eye, not at the moment.

Instead of replying, Yugi willed himself out of his soul room, took the puzzle from around his neck and put it on top of his desk. He could still feel Yami's remorse and guilt at the back of his mind, so he severed the link that they shared. When the link was gone, Yugi felt truly alone for the first time since they'd been in Egypt and it broke his heart. He didn't want to be alone, but he didn't trust himself at the moment not to do what he'd done in Egypt.

He got clean clothes out of his closet and quickly changed into them. He couldn't let Mokuba go after Kaiba, but there was nothing stopping him from doing it himself.

* * *

He settled at the head of the table and waited. 

The morning newspaper was neatly folded beside his plate, his coffee was fresh and hot, and breakfast smelled divine, but what he was really interested in was not in the room yet. Gozaburo had his eye on the entrance to the dining room, where his wayward adoptive son was due to walk through any moment. The maid had told him that she had informed Seto of breakfast, and if he remembered correctly, Seto was always punctual. The boy had learned early on that there were serious consequences if he dared keep Gozaburo waiting. At the other end of the table, where Seto's place had always been, similar arrangements to his had been made: the newspaper was also folded beside Seto's plate and his breakfast was already served. He didn't know why Seto had come back to the house last night, but Gozaburo was going to take advantage and make the boy pay for casually walking back into what Seto had so callously stolen from him.

Right on time, exactly thirty minutes after the maid had informed Seto that breakfast was almost served, the teenager walked into the dining room. The boy walked straight to his side of the table and took his seat without uttering a single word, as he'd been trained to do. Gozaburo immediately noticed every nuance of the body he'd occupied only recently, from the dark circles under the eyes to the bandaged hand. Seto's clothing was meticulous and his hair was perfectly combed, despite his pale skin and rigid shoulders. This had been another hard learned lesson that Gozaburo was glad Seto hadn't forgotten. He'd paid dearly those firs few weeks after he'd been adopted for coming down to breakfast in anything less than presentable, business attire.

"Good morning, Seto," Gozaburo said, "I had the cook make your favorite breakfast."

Seto glanced disdainfully at the food on his plate, before gazing at Gozaburo.

"I don't recall liking omelettes," Seto replied.

Gozaburo feigned surprise. "That's too bad. You don't know what you're missing," he said, and put a forkful of the egg concoction in his mouth, savoring the rich flavor.

He chewed slowly, never taking his eyes off Seto. After a moment of meeting his gaze, Seto looked away and Gozaburo couldn't hide the smile at the shadow of fear in Seto's eyes. It had always been there, from the first day they'd sat to have breakfast together, and no matter how much Seto tried to hide or mask it, Gozaburo had always been able to see it, and manipulate it to his own desire.

The teenager picked up his fork and poked at the food, but didn't actually put any in his mouth. It was just like old times. Gozaburo had always forced Seto to come share meals with him, even though he knew the kid would rarely eat. It had sometimes been amusing to force the kid to eat, because he knew that Seto would inevitably end up in the bathroom throwing the food up. The kid had always been so wound up, so nervous and stressed that it was no wonder the food rarely stayed in his stomach. Of course, Gozaburo had never done anything to change the situation. It had been easier to control the boy when he was sleep deprived and malnourished.

"How do you like what I've done with Kaiba Corporation?" Seto asked suddenly, the fear Gozaburo thought he'd seen in the teenager's eyes having turned to spitefulness and eagerness. It seemed that he wasn't the only one looking forward to resuming their games. Seto dared smirk at him from the other end of the table, which was enough to make Gozaburo clench his hand around the butter knife and wish that Seto was closer so that he could inflict some damage with it.

"It's a disgrace," Gozaburo growled.

Seto's smirk grew. "It's a very wealthy corporation."

Gozaburo had to admit that yes, Kaiba Corporation had made a lot of money. It hadn't made nearly as much as it would have if it had stayed in the weapons industry.

"Not wealthy enough," Gozaburo countered. "You destroyed a lot of my testing facilities."

Seto shrugged. "You didn't need them anymore."

Seto took a sip of his coffee and opened the newspaper casually and began to read it, as if he was having a conversation with an old friend. Gozaburo was enraged that Seto dared treat him with such disrespect and would dare mock him.

"I need the testing facilities now, because I plan on building more weapons. My adoptive son is an excellent weapon designer, after all, and I still have plenty of his designs to build from."

Seto's hands clenched ever so slightly on the newspaper he was reading. The teenager looked up again, but his bangs fell onto his forehead and obscured his eyes, so that Gozaburo couldn't see what was going on in them.

"You can't do a damn thing without me," Seto pointed out. "My little brother locked you out of the system so you're stuck as an observer, until I say so."

Gozaburo clenched his jaw in frustration. Seto was telling the truth, after all. His hands were tied until he could either hack into the very sophisticated system Seto had put in place, or Seto himself gave him access to it.

"Does it make you feel like more of a man that you can dangle that in front of my face?"

"It's a fact, nothing more and nothing less," Seto replied.

"What do you want?"

Seto's lips curved into something that might have been a smile, had there not been so much anger behind the expression.

"I want a deal."

* * *

"Have we arrived?" 

High Priest Seto looked at his surroundings but couldn't make sense of where, or when, he was. He reached out with his mind for the trace of magic he'd followed to this time, and was able to touch it for a brief instant, enough to assure himself that they'd arrived at the right time period, but not enough to pinpoint the location of his double. He stumbled upon something else, though, something he hadn't quite been looking for but was glad he'd found.

"We are in the right time," Seto said, taking a look at the strange room they had arrived in. "I just don't know where exactly we are. My double is not around, but I feel the Millennium Puzzle very near."

The pharaoh took a few tentative steps forward, away from the priest, until he was standing by a low table full of things they didn't recognize. He slowly turned in a circle, taking in his surroundings. Seto could already see the violet eyes taking in every exit, entrance, and possible obstruction. Yami would have a way out of the room, and out of danger, if they needed it. When Yami was satisfied that there were no immediate threats, he turned back to the high priest.

"Can you cast a spell to make us invisible? I would like to explore the area first, before we confront anyone."

Seto nodded and did as he'd been asked, quickly muttering a spell that rendered them invisible to their surroundings. If someone knew what to look for, they'd be found, but Seto doubted that anyone other than their doubles would be able to sense their presence. The high priest joined the pharaoh in looking around the strange room they'd arrived in. It was plain, and looked more like a room that belonged to the commoners rather than a room that the pharaoh's double should occupy. Briefly, Seto wondered if maybe he'd been mistaken and had lead them to the wrong place, but he was reassured when he cast his senses out again and felt the reassuring, and very familiar, trace of the Millennium Puzzle. They had not arrived at the wrong place.

The pharaoh had turned towards a door to their left but before he could take a step towards it, a young boy came through the door and made his way up the stairs that Seto had noticed to his right.

"Mokuba, tell Yugi that breakfast is ready, will you?" a very familiar voice came through the area the boy had left.

"Okay, Mr. Moto," the boy replied and continued up the rest of the steps.

"What is Shimon doing here?" the pharaoh asked, the surprise at hearing his attendant and right hand man clearly evident in his voice.

The pharaoh didn't wait for an answer; instead he walked to the still open door and took a peak inside. He didn't walk fully into the room; he just poked his head inside. When the pharaoh turned back to the priest, he had a faintly amused expression on his face.

"He's cooking," the pharaoh said, sounding slightly confused. "Don't they have servants to do that?"

The pharaoh walked back to the high priest and then looked in the direction the boy had gone.

"Seto, wasn't that kid that just passed us familiar? He looks like the kid my double dragged into the palace with him, the one your double was so fond of."

Seto hadn't made the recognition immediately, but the kid had looked familiar. Now that the pharaoh mentioned it, yes, it was the same kid that his double had been so fond of. Said kid came rushing down the stairs, but was interrupted from going back to where Shimon was cooking by a knock. The boy made his way to another door and opened it to reveal two people standing outside, one which made Seto immediately reach for the Millennium Rod that he'd carefully attached to his belt during the trip.

"Pharaoh," the high priest shouted and Yami turned to look at the newcomers. His hand immediately went to the puzzle around his neck when he noticed who was standing there as well. Seto became especially concerned when he noticed the Millennium Ring hanging around the thief's neck.

"Joey, Ryou, what are you doing here so early?" the boy said and let the two young men in.

"We wanted to check up on everyone," the white haired thief said. "Yugi and Kaiba hadn't been doing so well the last time we saw them, and we were concerned."

"Yeah," the other, taller, boy added. "How is everyone this morning?"

The younger boy's face seemed to fall and his grey eyes became full of moisture. The white haired thief walked up to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder.

"What's wrong, Mokuba, what happened?"

Seto was not used to seeing that open, honest, face on the notorious thief, and it made the hair stand up at the back of his neck. The other boys didn't seem concerned, however. Seto turned to the pharaoh and saw similar confusion on his face.

The boy, Mokuba, just shook his head, causing his hair to fly in every direction. He looked to be in a lot of pain and Seto wondered what could be troubling the young boy so much.

"So where is everyone?" the blonde boy asked. "Is Yugi awake yet?"

Shimon exited the kitchen at that moment and smiled at the boys. "Good, you're all in time for breakfast. Mokuba, did you get Yugi?"

Mokuba turned to Shimon. "Yugi's not upstairs. I thought he might have come down while I was in the kitchen and I'd just missed him."

Shimon shook his head. "He's not down here either."

"Maybe Yami will know where he is," Mokuba said. "I'll go upstairs and get the puzzle. I saw it on top of Yugi's desk."

The little boy rushed back up the stairs and Shimon ushered everyone into a dining room. He sat the boys down while he went into the kitchen to retrieve the food.

Seto and the pharaoh followed, confused and unsure of whether they should be on guard or not with the presence of the thief Bakura.

"I sense no malice from the thief," the pharaoh said. "I sense only concern from him and the other boys."

"There is a dark presence in the Millennium Ring, however," Seto pointed out. "We should be weary of that."

Mokuba came down the stairs carrying the Millennium Puzzle, which looked strange to Seto, because he hadn't seen it off of Yami for as long as he'd known the man. It seemed odd, that the boy could handle the puzzle, however. No one but the chosen few could even touch the sacred items, which made Seto wonder why Yugi didn't have it on him, wherever he'd gone. Something about the faces in the room, the tension that surrounded everyone, made Seto think that not everything was right in this strange time they'd come to and he had an nagging feeling that part of it had to do with what had just transpired in Egypt.

Mokuba set the puzzle on the table and everyone gathered looked at it expectantly, as if waiting for something to happen.

"Yami, do you know where Yugi is?" Shimon asked.

For a long while, there was no response. Seto was wondering why they were addressing the puzzle, when they really wanted to talk to the pharaoh's double. Wouldn't it make more sense to address the pharaoh's double directly? He was about to say something to his pharaoh, when there was a bright flash of light and suddenly, the pharaoh's double was standing a few feet in front of them, his body translucent, as if it were that of a spirit.

Seto's breath caught in his throat at the sight. He'd heard the rumors from the few that had been around when the Millennium Items had been forged. He'd read the books, the scrolls, that told of a fate worse than death for the owner of a Millennium Item that dared misuse it's power, a fate involving eternal darkness and loneliness in the confines of the item being misused. Beside him, he heard a similar gasp and turned to see that all color had drained from his pharaoh's face. He, too, knew of the rumors, had read the same scrolls as the high priest. The pharaoh's hands went to the puzzle that hung around his own neck, where they clenched around the polished gold of the item.

"No," the pharaoh whispered, his eyes glued to his double. "He was solid, living, when he was in Egypt. This can't be. There's nothing I would ever do to end up like that… "

Seto felt sympathy for the disbelief in his pharaoh's voice as the man trailed off. No wonder his double had managed to be around 3000 years in the future. The scene around him faded, until all he could see was his pharaoh standing a few feet away from him, white as a sheet, clutching at the puzzle. Suddenly, the priest regretted having come. He didn't know how he'd be able to go back to his life, knowing the fate that would befall his pharaoh.

* * *

Kaiba slammed the door to his office shut behind him with such force that one of the frames hung on the wall to the left of the door fell and shattered on the ground. He stared at it, contemplating calling someone to clean up the mess, and then shrugged and walked over it to his desk. It wasn't important. After all, he didn't plan on spending much time in this office to begin with. 

He didn't particularly like the office he was in. It wasn't his big office on the top floor of the building. Gozaburo had taken over that, so Kaiba had found shelter in his secondary office, the one in the basement of the building, right outside the research and development lab where he had spent the majority of the time since Gozaburo had 'died'. The office wasn't as big or as fancy as the other one, but it felt more like home to him, with pages of code lying on top of most available surfaces, along with spare parts and some basic drawings for future products. He hadn't been down to this office in a while, not since he'd been working on the duel disk, and he wondered what had gotten him so busy that he had neglected his job as chief developer.

Shrugging, deciding that he was wasting his time thinking of things he could no longer change, he put his hands on the keyboard to log into his system. He was suddenly hit by the memory of doing the exact same thing at that abandoned research lab. He couldn't even remember how long ago that had been. All he remembered was that his life had been thrown into chaos since then. As if he'd been hit by an electric shock, he lifted his hands over the keys and stared down at the inoffensive keyboard. He felt the pain of that night going up his fingers and into his arms and half expected to pass out. He smirked when he didn't, chastising himself for allowing his memory to play tricks on him.

"I'll show you, you bastard," Kaiba growled and logged into the system, pushing down on the keyboard a bit more than was necessary.

He immediately accessed the security settings for the system and wrote a couple of macros that would ensure that Gozaburo's every move would be logged and recorded. Kaiba wanted to know exactly what the man was doing and how he was doing it. Information was power and he planned on having plenty of it, especially after the deal he'd just made.

His fingers suddenly stopped their passionate dance over the keyboard and he found that he was no longer seeing the computer screen in front of him. Instead, he was seeing Gozaburo's smug face across the breakfast table earlier that morning.

"_I want a deal."_

_The statement went unanswered for what seemed to Kaiba like an eternity. An eternity in which Gozaburo calmly ate his breakfast, sipped his coffee, and read the morning paper. The more time that passed, the more Kaiba's anger flared at being blatantly ignored, but he reined the anger in. He wanted something from Gozaburo: something that he was wiling to put up with almost anything to get. Kaiba took a deep breath and forced himself to look away from Gozaburo. He focused his attention on the eggs on his plate, and his stomach churned at the mere sight of them. He took a sip of the strong, hot coffee instead and reminded himself that he'd already done this: he'd already played Gozaburo at his own game and won. He'd done it when he'd been much younger, much more impulsive, and a lot less mature, so there was absolutely nothing stopping him from doing it again. This time, just as last time, the most precious thing to him was at stake. He wasn't about to screw it up, not this time._

"_What do you want?"_

_Kaiba almost smirked when he heard the question. Gozaburo was too cocky; too sure of himself to realize that even now, he was playing into Kaiba's game. Kaiba took his own sweet time in answering, just as Gozaburo had done._

"_I'll give you the company," Kaiba said. "You can do whatever you want with it; make whatever deals you want. I won't get in the way. In fact, I'll give you access to everything you need."_

_Gozaburo's eyes widened slightly. The eyes bored into Kaiba, and he was suddenly reminded of having faced this same intense scrutiny when he'd been at the orphanage and desperate to get himself and his brother out of that hell hole._

"_What do you want in return?"_

_Kaiba shrugged. "I don't want anything, except to take my brother and leave."_

"_Leave? You mean you'd give up just like that?"_

_Kaiba took another sip of the coffee and watched Gozaburo over the top of the cup. "That's right, leave. There are a few things I want to finish at the company, but after I do that, it's all yours. I won't fight you; I won't try to undermine you. I'll pack my brother up and leave the country. I want your word that you will not have us followed or hunted down like animals."_

_Gozaburo smiled that predatory smile that reminded Kaiba of way too many 'lessons' learned in his youth. _

"_What makes you think that I buy such a lie? I'm disappointed, Seto. I would have thought that you'd come up with something better."_

"_What makes you think I'm lying?" Kaiba asked. _

_Gozaburo looked him up and down for a moment, which sent chills down Kaiba's spine. _

"_You're a stubborn and competitive brat, Seto. You don't know how to give up. It's not in your nature. If it were, I would have left you in the orphanage to rot like all the others."_

_Kaiba took a deep breath and held it. He had to convince Gozaburo that he wanted to leave without a fight. He hated to admit it to himself, but a big part of him was tempted to just take Mokuba and go. Even if Mokuba hated him now, he was tempted to do what he could to get his brother somewhere Gozaburo wouldn't be able to get his hands on the kid. Another part of Kaiba, however, the part that remembered the determination and drive that had forced him to learn chess and challenge Gozaburo in the first place, was unwilling to let go, unwilling to take the easy way out, not when Gozaburo was still around to cause damage and kill people. The man had died once, and Kaiba was going to make sure that it happened again, but this time, a lot more permanently. If he was lucky and played his cards right, Gozaburo would die and take Kaiba with him. The thought of finally ending an existence that he still wasn't sure had been worth fighting for, gave Kaiba the adrenaline rush he needed to focus on his task. _

"_I already beat you, Gozaburo. The company is mine, remember? You hid in a computer for years while I took over and destroyed your legacy. I don't have anything else to prove. I won."_

_The look of rage on Gozaburo's face almost brought a smile to Kaiba's, but he forced his face to retain the mask he was so accustomed to wearing. Angering Gozaburo had always worked to help him get his way and he'd become much better at manipulation since Gozaburo had downloaded himself into that computer._

"_I should have you put out of your misery. A stray dog like you deserves no better."_

_The comment stung more than Kaiba liked to admit, but he didn't react. Instead, he held up the newspaper, which he had opened to the business section. _

"_You still need me. I have shareholders and employees and board members that are still loyal to me. You can't get rid of me that easily."_

_Gozaburo held his tongue. He understood business, and Kaiba was going to use that to his advantage. The majority of the board of directors of the company would wonder if Kaiba suddenly turned up dead. He didn't kid himself into thinking that they'd be upset or miss him, but Kaiba did know that they would miss the man who was making them wealthy. Gozaburo knew that too and would undoubtedly want to avoid any unsavory situations. _

"_How long do you plan to stay around?" Gozaburo asked and Kaiba had to force himself not to laugh in triumph._

"_A few weeks," Kaiba replied and risked a look at the man sitting on the other side of the table. _

_Gozaburo contemplated the offer for a few more moments, before fixing his eyes on Kaiba again. _

"_I want something else from you," Gozaburo said. _

_  
"What is it?"_

"_I want you to deliver the Millennium Puzzle and the spirit inside it to me."_

_Kaiba's eyes widened slightly at that, but very quickly realized that he didn't really care what Gozaburo wanted with Yami and the puzzle. The thought of Yami, however, made his heart race, and it took every bit of control he had to keep his mask in place. _

"_Fine," Kaiba said. "I don't know what you'd want with a gaudy piece of jewelry like that, but I'll get if for you." He didn't owe Yami, or Yugi, anything, after all. _

"_Very well, then, you have a deal."_

They'd continued breakfast in silence, until Gozaburo announced that he was heading to the office. Kaiba had stayed behind for a bit, because he wanted to take his own car to the office. He felt relieved at having pulled off the first part of his plan, even with the added wrinkle. Guilt tried to push its way up past his carefully erected shields, but Kaiba pushed it down. He had to keep reminding himself that Yugi had betrayed him, so he owed him nothing. Handing the puzzle over to Gozaburo would ensure that Yami was not around to tell the others of what he thought he knew, which pleased Kaiba to no end. Either way, he'd get what he wanted in the end. He always did.

A short rap on his door drew his attention and he'd barely drawn enough breath to tell whoever it was to go away when the door swung open and Yugi Moto walked into the office. Kaiba was stunned into silence while Yugi closed the door behind him. When he regained his voice, however, it reflected the fury that he felt at being invaded, even in the one place he'd always felt safe.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" Kaiba roared. He got out of his chair, but he still kept the desk between himself and Yugi. "How did you get in here?"

Yugi's eyes bore into Kaiba's with such ferocity that Kaiba felt as if Yugi was picking through his soul piece by piece. He had to force himself to look away, before Yugi saw even more of his inner demons than he'd already seen.

"I'm resourceful, though most people don't give me credit for it," Yugi said.

Kaiba stared at the boy and realized that something was very off. Yugi wasn't himself. The normally calm boy radiated anger and misery and a recklessness that Kaiba had never seen in him before. Whatever had drawn Yugi to seek him out had not been planned and Kaiba could tell that even now, Yugi wasn't really sure about what he was doing. It was as if anger were driving him to do things he normally would have thought through before. Kaiba didn't care. He saw Yugi's weakness and was going to do his best to exploit it.

"Why are you here?" Kaiba asked again.

"You're a coward," Yugi spit out.

The accusation hit Kaiba like a physical blow, which immediately brought up his own defenses. Before he'd even realized he had moved, Kaiba had Yugi by the shoulders, pinned against the nearest wall. Yugi kicked Kaiba in the knee, which almost caused Kaiba to release the boy. Instead, Kaiba dug his fingers in deeper into the soft flesh of Yugi's shoulders, causing Yugi to wince. The boy struggled, but Kaiba had the height and weight advantage. Yugi was not getting loose unless Kaiba decided to let him go.

"What right do you have to judge me?" Kaiba said, his voice dripping with anger. "A man who doesn't uphold his word is not worthy of respect. He's not worthy of a life, either."

"You're blaming me for something I had no control over," Yugi yelled, but Kaiba could tell that the accusation had hit home. "What are you so afraid of, Kaiba? What do you think Yami is going to do with what he found out?"

Kaiba stared at the boy, but for a brief instant, he didn't see Yugi. He saw Hori's face instead, and it made him shudder in revulsion. Suddenly, the hands that Yugi had wrapped around his wrists in an effort to loosen Kaiba's hold on his shoulders felt like hot irons and Kaiba let Yugi go. He took a few steps away from the teenager, while Yugi regained his footing.

"You would rather run away, come here of all places, instead of dealing with what happened? There is nothing to be ashamed of, Kaiba. You did nothing wrong!"

Bile rose up so fast that Kaiba almost gagged on it, but he fought it down. He was glad he hadn't had any breakfast that morning. Sights and sounds assaulted his brain so fast that he lost all sense of his surroundings, trapped between reality and a living nightmare that would not cease to exist. His own screams reverberated in his ears, making white hot shame burn along his veins.

"Come back home with me, Kaiba, please," Yugi said from what sounded like the end of a long, long tunnel. "You shouldn't have to do this alone."

Before Kaiba could lose himself to the memories, his office door opened once again to reveal Gozaburo Kaiba. The sight of the man he despised was like a ground, pulling Kaiba away from the abyss of his mind and back to reality.

"I have to hand it to you, Seto, you act fast," Gozaburo said. He shut the door behind him and made his way towards where Yugi was standing by the opposite wall. "I was told he was in the building and could not resist coming to see for myself."

Yugi looked from Gozaburo and back to Kaiba, confusion finally making him look like the Yugi Seto remembered.

"You're not wearing the puzzle, Yugi," Gozaburo pointed out.

Kaiba looked at Yugi again and for the first time noticed that sure enough, the puzzle wasn't hanging around his neck, which explained why Yami hadn't come out to protect his precious partner when Kaiba had been manhandling him. Yugi stepped away from Gozaburo, but was stopped by the wall Kaiba had pinned him against earlier.

"What do you want?" Yugi asked, suddenly losing the anger that had brought him to Kaiba Corporation. "What are you talking about?"

"Seto and I made a deal," Gozaburo joyfully informed the teenager. "I leave him and his brother alone and he hands your puzzle and the spirit inside it over to me."

Yugi fixed wide eyes on Kaiba. "Is that true, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.

Gozaburo ignored Yugi and instead turned to Kaiba. "This boy is very important to that spirit in the puzzle isn't he?"

Kaiba nodded, anger rushing through him at the reminder of just how close those two were.

"So if I were to keep this one for a little while, the other would come looking for him?"

Kaiba shrugged. "It's very likely. You'll probably get the whole bunch of idiots, but yes, Yami would come looking for Yugi."

Gozaburo displayed that predatory grin that Kaiba was so accustomed to, which seemed to spur some kind of survival instinct in Yugi. The teenager moved faster than Kaiba had ever seen him move and was at the door, turning the knob, before Kaiba had realized what had happened. Yugi managed to pull the door open and had his mouth open to scream for help, before Gozaburo slapped a hand over Yugi's mouth to keep him quiet and used the other to slam the door shut again. Gozaburo wrapped his free arm around the boy to hold him tightly to his chest. Yugi's eyes were wide, desperation clearly evident in them. Kaiba watched him and wondered if he had looked that way the first time Gozaburo had taken him into the office for a 'lesson'. Kaiba pushed the thought away and walked back to his desk.

"I assume you're going to need a car," Kaiba said and picked up the phone to request one.

He avoided looking at Yugi, not wanting to see the plea for help in his violet eyes. There was a whimper, and Kaiba turned back to see that Yugi was unconscious in Gozaburo's arms.

"What did you do to him?" Kaiba asked before he could stop himself.

"There are places in the body that can be manipulated in just the right way," Gozaburo said. "Seto, hand me your coat."

"What?"

"I am not walking out of this building with this boy like he is now. Give me your coat."

Seto hesitated for a moment, but finally pulled off his coat and handed it to Gozaburo, who wrapped it around Yugi's body so that nothing of the teenager showed. He then slung the boy over a shoulder, making it appear as if he were carrying a cloth bag instead of a teenaged boy.

"Is there a car waiting for me?" Gozaburo asked.

Kaiba nodded. Gozaburo turned and was almost out of the office before something occurred to Kaiba. "Where are you taking him?" he asked.

"That is none of your concern, Seto. This was part of our deal, remember? What I do with him is my business."

With that, Gozaburo left the office, slamming the door behind him. Kaiba stared after him for a while, before he decided that going back to work would be the best way of distracting himself from the guilt that was trying to claw its way into his heart.

* * *

I'm going to go hide for another few months now, to avoid the fruits, rotten vegetables, and sharp objects that are going to inevitably be thrown my way. I'll see you all after the new year! 

Next up: More fun, torture and mayhem? The end of the story? AmunRa finaly loses her mind?


	31. Prisoners

Greetings! No, I haven't been swallowed up by a black hole just yet... it just took me a little while to finish this chapter. But let me tell you, once I started, I couldn't stop. I have 3/4 of chapter 32 already finished, and half of chapter 33, so you should be getting some pretty speedy updates for a little while.

I have a couple of thank yous for this chapter:

LuoLiBei has agreed to beta this story, so now, thanks to her, you should be getting error free chapters. Let's all give her a round of cyber applause for willing to take this on. She's awesome at noticing the little stuff I just don't catch and this chapter is so much better for it.

Also, Higuchimon has put together this fantastic fanfiction website and has been kind enough to include all of my stories. I was so excited when I got the notification that it was done! Look on my bio page for the link. While you're there, check out some of the other stories that are housed there.

Now on to more serious business: fanfiction dot net has banned replying to reviews... I am totally bummed about that, because I LIKE replying to my reviews. So keeping that in mind, I now have my own website. Well, it's more like a "Page Under Construction" home page right now, but it'll eventually be where I post my replies to your reviews. I haven't developed a web page in years, so I'm rusty and it's taking me longer than I thought to get it all together.

Anyway, enough rambling because I know you want to get to the story. To those of you still here, thank you for your patience! Let's hope I still have some readers left.

* * *

**Part 31: Prisoners**

"_The strongest lock, the highest obstacle, the deadliest prison, is the one we impose upon ourselves."_

He was cold.

He reached out to pull the comforter up from where it had bundled around his legs, and had to struggle with it for a while before he managed to pull it up enough to cover his bare arms. He sighed in contentment at the gained warmth, and would have gone back to sleep, if not for the fact that his bare feet were now cold. Frowning, still in that state between sleep and full consciousness, he attempted to pull the comforter down enough to cover his feet. It took him a while, but he realized that the material that was covering him didn't feel like his comforter usually did. Where his comforter was thick and fluffy, what he was holding now was light and thin. It felt rich, almost, but not quite, like silk.

Yugi finally opened his eyes and caught a first look at his surroundings, which were definitely not familiar. He sat up, hoping that he was still dreaming and would awake at any moment to find himself back in his room, instead of in the strange room he found himself in. The walls were almost bare, except for the watercolor of the ocean hanging over the fireplace that dominated the wall directly opposite him. Two chairs sat on either side of the fireplace and were covered with a thin piece of plastic. The only other piece of furniture in the room, beside the bed he was on, was a bookcase on the wall to his right. It was overflowing with books.

Yugi looked down at what he'd thought was his comforter and saw thin, burgundy material instead. It looked familiar to him, but Yugi couldn't remember where he'd seen it before. He could almost picture it on someone, but he couldn't remember who.

He got out of the bed and dragged the burgundy material with him. The room was cold and he wasn't wearing anything over his sleeveless shirt. He was also barefoot, which he found both amusing and disturbing. The person that had brought him here had taken off his coat, his shoes, and his socks, for a reason that Yugi was sure he wouldn't like once he found out what it was. The cold, wooden floor sent shivers up his spine and he stretched out the material he'd dragged out of bed, intending to wrap it around his shoulders, but stopped when it suddenly dawned on him who he'd seen wearing the coat he was holding. His heart sped up as he remembered where he'd last seen the coat, and how that particular meeting had turned out. Shame, followed by disgust, slowly worked through him, until he was clenching his jaw in self reproach.

"How stupid," Yugi whispered to himself. "To think I could walk in there and…"

He trailed off, seized by the gravity of his situation for the first time since he'd run out of his grandfather's house and headed for Kaiba Corporation. The memory of Gozaburo's arm around his shoulders, holding him in place, keeping him from calling for help, made Yugi look around in a panic, half expecting to see the mad man standing beside him. Instead, he found only silence and emptiness.

The emptiness was suddenly filled with the look on Kaiba's face as Gozaburo had calmly explained the plan to Yugi, the plan for Kaiba to steal the Millennium Puzzle and hand it to Gozaburo. Kaiba had looked angry and pleased with himself as Gozaburo told him what they planned on doing with him. Betrayal ran through his veins for the second time that day, deep and cutting. He understood that Kaiba was hurt because of what happened last night, what Yami had told him, but why had it led to this? How could Kaiba let a madman like Gozaburo do something like this? A part of Yugi wanted to scream that he'd done nothing wrong to deserve Kaiba's wrath, but he silenced that little voice before it even got started. Yami was his responsibility, after all. It had been Yugi's soul room that had told Yami what had eventually ended up with Kaiba, which made the situation Yugi's fault.

Yugi shivered, both from the raging emotions in his heart and the cold in the room. He looked down at the coat he was still clutching and decided that he'd make some use of it, so he put it on. The ends of it pooled on the floor, and he smiled bitterly at the sight. If Kaiba saw him, the taller teen would never let him live down the fact that he was too short to wear his coat. It was probably not a good idea for Yugi to see Kaiba any time soon, if what was said in the office was any indication of what was in store for him. Yugi didn't know exactly how the Kaibas planned on using him to lure Yami, but he had a feeling that he didn't want to find out.

With a sigh, Yugi headed for the door. He had a feeling that it was locked, but he had to try it anyway. After twisting the knob a few times he confirmed that the door was locked. Defeated, and with no more options, he headed for the bookcase. Maybe he could find something there to keep his mind from thinking up all sorts of bad scenarios. He pulled out a book and frowned when he read the title: _Business Management Strategies_. He pulled out another one: _Principles of Engineering Design_.

"Someone's school books," Yugi muttered as he flipped through the first one, before putting it back.

He also flipped through the second book, but saw nothing in it that would keep him occupied. He was almost to the end of the book when a white piece of paper stuck between two of the pages caught his eye. Yugi flipped back to it and was surprised to find that the insert was not a piece of paper but a picture. He pulled it out and flipped it to find that it depicted a young couple with a little boy. The woman was seated and held the little boy, who was no more than three or four years old, in her arms. She was smiling and her blue eyes seemed to shine with joy. The man was standing behind the woman with his hands on her shoulders and was also smiling. The little boy's own blue eyes and big smile matched his mother's, even when half obscured by his brown bangs.

Yugi smiled at the photograph of the family and wondered if this house had belonged to them. His eyes were drawn to the little boy and it took him a little while to realize why. He'd seen the teenager this boy had become only hours ago, but could not recall ever seeing this big of a smile, or a smile of any kind, on his face. He flipped the photograph over and saw a single line of writing: Seto, age 3. Yugi stared at the little boy's face, at the innocence and pure joy radiating from it, and wondered, not for the first time, what had happened to make Seto Kaiba into the person that he was.

Yugi felt around until he found a pocket on the coat and gently put the photograph inside it. For some reason, the photo had been relegated to this old and abandoned bookshelf, but he was going to make sure that it got back to someone who would appreciate it.

Yugi grabbed another book from the bookshelf and read its title: _A Complete History of the Ancient World_. He smiled and sat down at the foot of the bookcase to read.

* * *

When Yami decided to come out of the puzzle, he was surprised to find four sets of eyes staring at him. He looked from one to the other, wondering why they were looking at him expectantly. He was about to ask what was going on when he felt the strange surge of power from somewhere to his left. It was brief, as if it had been deliberately cut off once the wielder had realized that the power had escaped in the first place. He cast his senses in that direction and with a gasp realized that the power he was feeling wasn't strange: it was very familiar. He felt it every day, filtering through the maze that was his soul room and coursing through his veins when he dueled. 

He concentrated on the spot where he had felt the power originate, and thought that, for a brief second, he'd seen an outline of something, or someone, standing at the periphery of the room. He turned back towards the others, hoping to see something on their face that let him know that they had sensed the same thing, but they were still staring expectantly at him, if now with a little more confusion rather than expectation.

"Yami, is something the matter? Is there something over there?"

Yami wanted to say that yes, there was something over there, but he didn't want to worry them, not when they looked worried enough already. He looked closely at the spot again and when he felt none of the power he'd felt upon being drawn out of the puzzle, turned back to Mr. Moto, who had asked the question.

"No, there is nothing wrong," he said.

Yami looked from one face to the other, wondering why they all looked so tense. He wondered when Joey and Ryou had arrived, and at the same time wondered where Yugi was. Yami wasn't sure whether he should bring up Yugi at all, because he really didn't want to know if his young partner wasn't around because he wanted to stay as far away from him as possible. The choice was taken away from him, however, when Joey spoke.

"Do you know where Yugi is?"

Joey's voice was laced with worry, which immediately brought up Yami's guard. He looked down at the golden puzzle that sat on the dining table and again felt that loss that came from Yugi having severed their connection after their confrontation in the soul room.

"I do not know," Yami replied.

"He's not in the house and we were hoping you knew where he'd gone," Mr. Moto said. "Have you spoken to him?"

The last time Yami had seen Yugi, the young man had looked angrier than Yami had ever seen him. He'd disappeared from the soul room in a flash, leaving Yami with the crushing weight of his guilt. He had been debating whether to confront Yugi once again when he'd been drawn out of the puzzle. He didn't want to get into what had happened with Yugi, but he felt the need to give them an answer. Not only that, but Yami was concerned that Yugi had left the house, without the puzzle, and without telling anyone else. Yugi had been angry about what had happened with Kaiba, which meant that Yugi had more than likely gone after the elder teen.

"He probably went after Kaiba," Yami blurted out before he could think better of it.

"How do you know?' Mokuba asked. "Did he tell you he was going after my brother?"

"Why would he do that?" Joey asked. "Isn't Kaiba here?"

Everyone turned to Mr. Moto, who only shook his head. Mokuba looked down at the table and his hair fell in front of his face, obscuring it from view. Joey and Ryou looked at each other and then at everyone else.

"Would someone mind telling us what happened here last night?" Ryou asked. "Why is Kaiba gone and why did Yugi go somewhere without the puzzle?"

Out of everyone present, Yami was the only one that knew the answers to all of their questions, but he could not say a word. He'd already betrayed a confidence and he was not about to reveal any more of what he knew. After a long stretch of silence, Mr. Moto finally spoke.

"We don't know why Kaiba left, but he was gone when we got up this morning," the elder man said, his voice strained. "Yugi didn't know either, when we asked him."

Yami's attention drifted from the conversation and he focused instead on the power he'd felt earlier. It was back. This time, however, it was like a low, constant, presence rather than a sudden surge. Someone was doing a very good job of masking their presence, but they were not doing it well enough. He looked at Ryou Bakura, who was focused on Mr. Moto. Yami then focused on the Millennium Ring and sensed that the spirit was still inside of the item. There was something else in the room… something else that was tainted with dark magic.

He turned back to the place where he'd thought he'd seen something, but there was nothing there now. He made his way to the spot, and as he got closer, the power increased. The power was definitely familiar. It wasn't just the dark magic that was familiar to him, however. The power he was sensing was his own; it was the power of the Millennium Puzzle, but it was not coming from him. There was a second trace of magic, one that he did not readily recognize aside from it being similar to the dark magic of the Millennium Items.

"I know you're here," he said suddenly, causing the conversation that had been going on behind him to cease. "Show yourself before I force you to do it."

His voice was steady, but his anger was rising. Who dared intrude into their home and then hide themselves like cowards? Did they think that he was so blind that he couldn't sense them?

"I'm surprised it took you this long to notice it."

The voice caught him by surprise, and Yami turned to find the spirit of the thief standing beside his host, staring past him to the spot where the power was concentrated. Ryou, Joey, and Mr. Moto were also staring at him.

"My memories are very sketchy of my life in Egypt, but I'd say that what you're sensing is your own power, dear Pharaoh," Bakura said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "If I were you, I'd show myself," Bakura added, addressing whoever else was in the room. "You don't want the pharaoh to get angry."

Yami opened his mouth to tell Bakura to be quiet when he felt the power surge again. He turned around and found himself face to face with himself and Priest Seto. The pharaoh was staring at him, his eyes wide in disbelief, his hands clutched around the Millennium Puzzle around his neck. Priest Seto had brought the Millennium Rod out of its resting place and was holding it out towards Bakura as if daring him to try anything.

"My, my, what do we have here," the spirit of the thief said as he made his way closer to them. "Isn't this a lovely reunion?"

"Stay away, thief!" Seto warned. "I will not hesitate to send you back to wherever you came from."

Bakura laughed. "You can try, Seto, you can try. I'd worry about him first, though," he added, pointing at the pharaoh, who looked shell-shocked. "You look like you've seen a ghost, Pharaoh."

With that, Bakura disappeared.

"What is going on?" Joey asked, staring at the newcomers, his eyes wide. Beside him, Mokuba also stared.

"Seto?" the little boy asked.

Priest Seto glanced at the boy. "Do you know me?"

Mokuba nodded. "You look like my brother," he said, apparently realizing that he was not looking at his older brother but at a stranger with the same face.

Yami turned his attention back to the pharaoh. "What are you doing here?"

The pharaoh's eyes finally focused and he looked at Yami.

"What did you do?" the pharaoh asked.

The question was not one he had been expecting.

"What do you mean?"

"What did you do to end up like that? You knew the rules regarding the Millennium Items, so why did you do it? What could possibly have been worth it? Tell me what I'm going to do to end up like you?"

Yami finally understood what the pharaoh was asking him and why the man seemed so upset. He looked down at his translucent body, at the puzzle that still sat on the table, and at the people gathered in the room. When he turned back to the pharaoh, the man seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"I don't remember," was all Yami said.

"What do you mean, you don't remember? How could you not remember breaking one of our country's greatest laws?"

"My memories of my past do not exist," he explained. "I don't remember anything past the point where Yugi assembled the Millennium Puzzle again, after 3000 years."

The pharaoh looked like he wanted to say more, but he thought better of it and kept his mouth shut. He let his hands drop down from where they'd been gripping the puzzle around his neck.

"Would someone care to explain what is going on?"

Yami turned to Mr. Moto, who had asked the question.

"This is High Priest Seto and the Pharaoh, from Ancient Egypt," Yami said. "We met them while we were away."

Mr. Moto came up to them and studied the newcomers, who were as solid as he was. He reached out, touched their clothes and their faces.

"Unbelievable," he said. "Absolutely unbelievable."

Joey, Bakura, and Mokuba came up to them as well, but Mokuba seemed to hang back a little.

"Why are you here?" Yami asked the high priest. "How did you get here?"

The high priest reached into his robe and took out a shiny, rectangular object. Yami failed to recognize it at first, until Mokuba spoke.

"That's my brother's belt buckle," Mokuba said. "Where did you get it?"

The high priest thought about his answer for a moment, before he responded. "I went back to the camp and found this, among other things," he said to Yami.

Those words were more than enough to cause Yami to flash back to what he'd seen through Yugi's eyes in the soul room. He suddenly felt chilled.

"I was worried about Kaiba, so I used this, and a little magic, to help me find him again."

Yami looked at the priest and it dawned on him again how different he and Seto Kaiba were. Seto had a much calmer aura around him, while Kaiba's was raw and ready to strike. The priest was right to be worried. What Yami had seen last night was definitely a sign that Seto Kaiba was not in the best of shape and badly needed to get help.

"If you used this to bring you to him, then that would mean that Kaiba is somewhere nearby, wouldn't it?"

"My brother is not here," Mokuba said. "I've looked throughout the house and couldn't find him."

"He's nearby," the pharaoh said. "Even I can feel his presence."

Seto nodded. "I do as well. He is close."

Mokuba immediately went to the front door and pulled it open, as if expecting his elder brother to be waiting for him. There was no one there, however. Mokuba took a couple of steps outside, before coming to a complete stop. Yami, curious, went to the door and looked outside.

"What is it, Mokuba?" Yami asked.

"There he is," Mokuba said.

"Where," Yami asked, looking out at the street in front of him.

"There," Mokuba said, pointing to a car that was parked across the street from the game shop. "That's his car."

* * *

The sun had reached its midpoint while he'd sat in his car outside of the game shop. The brightness poured in through the front windshield of his car, but it did nothing to brighten the darkness of his mind, or push away the indecision that had plagued him ever since he'd come within sight of the game shop. 

Kaiba had left his office hours earlier, driven by a need to get this task over with. It had come from out of nowhere, surprising him with its intensity. It had become so distracting that he'd completely forgotten the blueprints he'd been working on in favor of staring at the wall. It had taken him half an hour to realize that the wall he was staring at was the same one against which his adoptive father had held Yugi only hours earlier. The realization had sent shivers down his spine, and when he'd reached up to pull his coat tighter to his body only to grab at empty air, the weight of what he'd done fell on him like a ton of bricks. The image of the bundle on Gozaburo's shoulder, covered in his coat, had been enough to get him out of his office as fast as his long legs would carry him.

That determination drained out of him like a deflating balloon as soon as he'd reached his destination. The indecision that had slowly taken residence in his soul was now clutching his chest like a steel trap clutching its prey. The image of a young face with innocent, gray eyes had taken residence in his mind's eye and nothing he thought of would shake that loose. He had to convince the owner of those eyes to let him go. Nothing, not taking over his adoptive father's corporation or defeating his many enemies had ever seemed as hard as this. His brother's future depended on how convincing he could be at what he was about to do, which was why he was still sitting in his car.

It took Kaiba a minute to realize that the front door of the house attached to the game shop had been opened and that Mokuba was standing outside, staring in his direction. Yami stepped out after the boy and looked around, and then also focused in his direction when Mokuba directed him. Kaiba's breath caught in his throat for a second, before he pushed everything that wasn't anger down into the place in his heart where he kept every other emotion that served no purpose to him. He took a couple of deep breaths and centered himself before getting out of the car.

He strode towards his brother without faltering, without second thought.

"Brother," Mokuba said when he was close enough.

The boy started towards him and then stopped and thought better of it. His face betrayed his confusion for a moment, before Mokuba shook his head and decided to come up to him anyway. The boy threw his arms around Kaiba's waist in a tight hug and squeezed.

"You came back, brother," Mokuba said, his voice muffled by the fact that his face was pressed against Kaiba's chest. "You came back."

Kaiba didn't return Mokuba's hug. He forced his arms to stay at his sides and looked straight ahead, at Yami. His heart began to beat faster as memories of the night before made a brief appearance in his mind, but Kaiba managed to retain those as well. Yami stared back at him, his face revealing nothing. Kaiba looked past Yami for a second and saw that some of the other idiots were present inside the house, but quickly dismissed them. The business he had with Yami wasn't going to take long. He disengaged himself from his brother's hug and stood in front of Yami.

"I know where you can find what you're looking for," Kaiba said before anything else was spoken. His only duty was to come, deliver the news and leave. He wanted nothing more to do with anyone that was standing in front of him and he wanted away from their presence as soon as possible.

Yami's eyes widened slightly at the statement, but he said nothing. No one said anything, until Mr. Moto stepped outside.

"You know where Yugi is?" the old man asked.

Kaiba nodded once.

The old man was wringing his hands together, and Kaiba could see how visible the bones were through the wrinkled skin. Kaiba wondered if the old man had ever killed anyone. Were his hands bloody, were they stained?

"You are to bring the Millennium Puzzle to Kaiba Corporation at midnight tomorrow night," Kaiba said. "You will then be told where to find your grandson."

"What did you do to him?" Joey asked as he, too, stepped outside. "Where did you take him?"

Kaiba was suddenly very glad the mutt was present. When Joey was around, anger was always readily available to Kaiba.

"I have nothing to do with Yugi's disappearance," Kaiba said. "He came to Kaiba Corp. on his own. The rest is not my problem. I'm just here to tell you what you need to do."

He turned to leave, but Yami's voice stopped him.

"Who are we going to find waiting for us tomorrow night, Kaiba? Will it be you? Is this how you're getting revenge for something Yugi had nothing to do with?"

Kaiba's hands clenched tightly and he welcomed the sting of his injured hand. "Yugi should learn to be a man and take responsibility for his actions, instead of letting you do it for him." He paused and stared Yami down. "I have my priorities straight, unlike you," Kaiba added through clenched teeth. "I do what I need to do to accomplish them."

Kaiba then grabbed Mokuba's arm and moved him away from the others. Yami made a move to follow, but one glance from Kaiba stopped him in his tracks.

"Why are you doing this, Seto? Why did you leave? What does Yugi have to do with it?"

Mokuba's voice was soft and trembled with the tears he would not shed. His eyes pleaded with Kaiba to make everything go away, to go back home like nothing ever happened, but Kaiba knew how impossible that wish was. He was glad, though, that Mokuba could still think like that, even though Kaiba himself had stopped wishing for it all to go away long ago.

"Two men will come and pick you up tomorrow, Mokuba. Go with them. They will take you far away from here, where Gozaburo can never find you."

Mokuba shook his head and grabbed onto Kaiba's hand with both of his. "I'm not going anywhere without you, Seto. There's something wrong with you and I don't think you should be alone right now. Stay with me, please."

Mokuba's tears finally rolled down his cheeks and Kaiba resisted the urge to brush them away. Instead, he pulled his hand away from Mokuba's.

"They will take you, Mokuba, whether you want them to or not. Don't force them to take you against your will."

Kaiba turned to leave, but Mokuba grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back.

"Don't do this, brother. You're pretending that you don't care, pretending that you had something to do with what happened to Yugi, so that we leave you alone, but that's not going to happen. I won't give up on you."

Mokuba was yelling now, which was drawing the attention of the idiots standing by the door. Kaiba looked down at his little brother and pried the hands off of his arm.

"Be careful in who you believe, Mokuba. It is not wise to put faith in anyone but yourself, remember that."

Kaiba walked away from his little brother, who was still yelling. He made it across the street and to his car when he suddenly froze. He felt, rather than saw, someone standing behind him. He attempted to turn around, but found his body completely frozen in place.

"You are not well."

The words were unexpected, but what was even more unexpected was the voice, because it was his own voice he heard. Kaiba wondered, for a brief moment, if he was starting to hallucinate and hear himself think out loud. Before he could ponder it further, the paralysis went away and he was able to turn around, to find himself staring at someone he thought he'd never see again.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kaiba asked the priest.

He'd been able to deal with the fact that this man was his exact duplicate while in Egypt, because he hadn't exactly been himself and they'd been in an environment completely foreign to him. Here, in Domino, the strangely dressed man seemed like something out of a nightmare.

"I thought you'd want this," the priest said and held something out to Kaiba.

At first, all Kaiba saw was something shiny in the priest's hand. As soon as his brain was able to recognize what was being held out to him, he recoiled. His back hit the car before he'd even realized he'd moved. His breath caught in his throat, and he looked away from the offending object and down at the concrete underneath the priest's feet.

"I take it you don't want it back?" Seto asked.

The priest's voice wasn't rough. It held a compassion and care that Kaiba hadn't heard in his voice for a long time, and even then not with anyone except his little brother. It was a tone he'd certainly not heard used on him since his mother had died. Despite what the priest was trying to do, Kaiba didn't say anything. He wasn't about to admit anything, not even to his double. He glanced across the street, where he could now see that the pharaoh had also made the trip and was standing beside Yami, and both were staring in their direction.

"How did you get that?" Kaiba asked, but at the same time, he was afraid of the answer. He had to ask the question, though. It was like watching a train wreck that he just couldn't look away from.

"I went back to the camp site," the priest admitted. "I found the dead bodies, and the remains of your clothing."

Kaiba felt as if someone had wrapped his hands around his throat and was slowly suffocating him. He also felt exposed and raw, as if a burning spotlight had been turned on him. He wanted to look around and see whose eyes were on him, or if anyone was close enough to overhear what the priest had said. He didn't move, however. In this short life, he had never backed away form a challenge, but he couldn't look. He didn't want to know just who else knew his dirty secret. When he found his voice, it was barely above a whisper and lacked the venom it had carried just minutes before.

"So what, do you want me to congratulate you on your powers of deduction?"

"I am responsible for what happened," the priest said as he tucked the buckle back into a pocket of his robe. "It should have been me out there, not you."

Kaiba finally looked at his double and found the man's face as impassive as he hoped his own was.

"You came thousands of years into the future to tell me that?" Kaiba asked, incredulous. He opened the door to the car and would have gotten in, but the priest's hand on the door stopped him.

"I owe you, and I pay my debts."

Kaiba chuckled, but there was no humor in the sound. "Look around you, priest. You are not at home anymore. This is my time, my place and my rules. I could care less what you think you owe."

Kaiba slammed the door closed, but the priest was not ready to finish.

"You are not well, Kaiba, and rest assured that no matter where you go, I will find you."

Kaiba heard the words clearly even through the closed door. He started the engine and then wasted no time in pulling out onto the street. He'd done what he'd come to the game shop to do. The rest was out of his hands.

* * *

High Priest Seto stared in the direction Kaiba had left for a long while. He could barely hear the worried conversation going on across the street and, while he was worried about Yugi, he was more worried about the man that had just left. There was self-destruct written on every tense line of Kaiba's body and Seto had a feeling that if something wasn't done soon, it would be too late to do anything. How could he help someone who not only didn't admit to what had happened but was not willing to accept the possibility that he needed help? If the brother couldn't get through to Kaiba, how did he expect to? 

"This is a strange place," the pharaoh said as he came up to the priest. "It is not like our home at all."

Seto sighed and looked around at the strange, glass buildings and weirdly dressed people. They were visible now, so the few people that noticed them were looking at them as if they were the strange ones.

"We should probably try to blend in," Seto said. "We're drawing too much attention as it is."

The pharaoh nodded. "What do you plan on doing now? Kaiba clearly doesn't want your help."

"I don't know," Seto said.

The pharaoh turned towards the others for a moment. "Why are we here, Seto? Is it just your guilt you're trying to alleviate by being here?"

Seto didn't have to think about the answer for very long.

"I do feel guilt about what happened, Pharaoh, but that is not why I am here. Those people over there don't know how to deal with him. They care, despite what they say or how they act, but they don't know how to read him or deal with him. In a way, he is me. If there is anyone that can get through to him, it's me."

The pharaoh considered the high priest's words for a moment. "Why is it so important that you get through to him?" the pharaoh asked.

Seto didn't have to think about the answer to this question either.

"I don't want him to end up dead."

* * *

So there you have it. Next chapter: more angst galore. There is some destruction, there is some running away, and there are some revelations as well. I hope to see you there! 


	32. Innocence Lost

Greetings!

No, you're not seeing things... this really is an update. Two chapters in less than two weeks has to be a record for me. Intruders will be three years old on July 2 (three years and it's still not finished?). Let's throw a party! I'll see what I can do, maybe post a special chapter or something. I figure a milestone like that needs to be celebrated...

**Reviews**: I have replied to all signed reviews through ff dot net's reply feature (grumbles again at not being able to reply in the story). I replied to anonymous reviews on my as yet unfinished website. You can locate it here: amunraprincess dot bravehost dot com forward slash index dot html. In case this doesn't show up, there is a link on my bio page.

Thank you LuoLiBei for being such a wonderful beta, and for making me look up the rules of comma usage. I promise to use commas with moderatiaon from now on... :o)

I would also like to dedicate this chapter to Nenya85. It is through many of our chats that I find inspiration to write, and she was very instrumental in my getting chapters 31 through 33 written. We've also talked about this particular chapter several times and I know she's been waiting for it for quite a while. I hope you enjoy!

Everyone, as always, thanks for the wonderful reviews! (cyber hugs to everyone).

**Warning**: there are a couple of bad words in this chapter, I think... I know of one for sure, but there could be more.

* * *

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**Part 32: Innocence Lost**

The knock on the door was annoying the first time it happened. The second and third times, it was downright obtrusive.

"Go away!" Kaiba uncharacteristically yelled at whomever it was that dared invade his privacy.

The knocking stopped. He waited for a few moments to see if the person had really gone away and then sighed in relief. He was about to put his fingers back on the keyboard to finish writing his program to keep tabs on Gozaburo, when the knock came again.

"Mr. Kaiba, the elder Mr. Kaiba wishes for you to join him for dinner."

Kaiba retained his stiff stance for a split second, before pushing back the chair he'd been sitting on so hard that it hit the opposite wall. He pulled the door open, which made the maid that had been standing on the other side jump in fear.

"Tell him to shove it," Kaiba said to the woman and then shut the door in her face.

He paced the length of the room for a few minutes. He was jittery and worked up, and couldn't concentrate on what he was doing. All afternoon, he'd been easily distracted by every single noise in the house and he was getting frustrated at his inability to work. He turned too quickly as he got to the end of his room and knocked over the lamp that illuminated his desk. The shattering of expensive crystal sounded comforting to his ears and Kaiba looked around the room to see what else he could break. His eyes landed on the other lamps, the matching pair that rested on the night stands on either side of his bed. He picked one of them up, hefted the heavy object in his hand, before sending it crashing against the antique armoire that held some of his clothing. He smirked in satisfaction at the destruction and picked up the other lamp. He hurled this one at the door and watched, mesmerized, as the pieces of crystal fell onto the white carpet at his feet. The light from the computer reflected off of the crystal shards, making it look as if they were sparkling, or crying.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in there?"

Gozaburo's booming voice did nothing to quell Kaiba's restlessness. The man knocked on the door and yelled for Kaiba to open it. In response, Kaiba picked up the heavy paperweight on his desk and hurled it at the door, where it left a nice dent in the expensive wood.

"Open the door this instant, Seto. I will not let you destroy my house," Gozaburo yelled.

"It's my house now!" Kaiba yelled back, "I do with it as I please."

Kaiba heard heavy thuds from the outside of the room and had no doubt that Gozaburo would break down the door if he had to. He momentarily considered putting a chair in front of the door, but then discarded the idea. If Gozaburo was going to come in here, Kaiba was going to face him like a man.

The wood around the door's knob began to splinter and then shattered altogether, allowing Gozaburo to come charging through the door. The man took one look around the room and stopped in his tracks. Something akin to concern crossed the man's eyes so fast that Kaiba wondered if he'd even seen it, before the familiar expression of disdain settled there instead.

"What is wrong with you, Seto? You're a little too old to throw a temper tantrum, don't you think?

Kaiba should have been insulted at being compared to a child, but he wasn't. A part of him understood that he wasn't acting like himself, that he was acting like a petulant child, but he didn't care.

"You will answer me, young man," Gozaburo said.

He stalked towards Kaiba and raised his hand as if to strike the younger man, but Kaiba quickly ducked out of the way. He had almost made it clear away from Gozaburo, when the man's heavy hands landed on his arms and pulled him backwards. The reaction was instinctive. With a yell, Kaiba dropped to his knees, which dragged Gozaburo down with him. He used Gozaburo's weight against him and flipped the man onto the nearest object, which just happened to be a glass end table that shattered under the man's weight. Gozaburo lay unmoving on the ground, and Kaiba hoped that he'd done some permanent damage. He wasn't going to stick around to find out, however. He grabbed his laptop from the desk and then took off.

He ran down the stairs, past shocked maids and an even more shocked butler, and out the front door. Kaiba didn't stop there, however. He kept running, past the front gates of the mansion and out onto the street. He didn't know where he was going; he had no where to go; he had only a desire to run until he could no longer run.

He didn't know how long he'd run, but the adrenaline eventually wore off and he began to feel dizzy and disoriented. He stopped, his breathing ragged and desperate, and looked around. The Kaiba mansion was in a secluded part of Domino, on the hills that surrounded the city. It was a good distance away from the road that would take him back into the main part of the city, and Kaiba had run almost all the way down to that road. He sat on the sidewalk and clutched his laptop to his chest as he waited for his breathing to even out once again.

What had he just done? He wasn't concerned about Gozaburo or the fact that for the first time in his life, he'd managed to lay a hand on the man. No, he was more concerned for the mental lapse that had led him to lose it, even if it had been for a moment. What was wrong with him? The jitters that he'd felt leading up to his destructive interlude were gone, leaving him with a weariness so deep that he felt as if he were at the bottom of an hourglass, slowly being crushed by the falling sand.

"Nice night for a stroll, isn't it?"

Kaiba jerked at the sound of the voice and as soon as he realized who it was, got to his feet to confront him. Unfortunately, his body decided then that he'd had enough exercise for one night and he lost his footing. He would have fallen on his face if Priest Seto had not rushed to his side and held him up. When Kaiba had regained his balance, he pushed the priest away.

"Don't touch me," he growled.

The priest shrugged and then sat down where Kaiba had been moments earlier.

"Whatever you're using to find me, give it to me. I don't want you to do this again," Kaiba said.

The priest shrugged. "I showed you earlier what I was using to find you, but you didn't seem to want it back."

Kaiba sighed. He'd put up with the meddling priest if it meant that he never had to see that belt buckle again.

"What are you wearing?" Kaiba asked when he noticed that the priest was no longer wearing his robes or his sandals. Instead, he was dressed in blue jeans that seemed a bit too short on him, a long sleeved tee shirt and tennis shoes.

The priest looked down at himself as if noticing his clothing for the first time.

"I'm visible the majority of the time, so I'm trying to blend in," he said. "Why, do you have a problem with what I'm wearing?"

Kaiba shrugged and sat down on the other side of the priest with the laptop between them.

"Aside from it being something I wouldn't wear, you look just like the mutt."

One of the priest's eyebrows raised in inquiry.

"The mutt," Kaiba repeated, as if that would explain it all. "It has to be his clothing because he's the only one that's anywhere near as tall as you are."

"Who or what is 'the mutt'?" the priest asked.

"Wheeler," Kaiba said. "The blond, dumb kid that's always hanging around Yugi, that's the mutt."

The priest nodded. "Yes, Joey did let me borrow these clothes."

"Well, you look ridiculous," Kaiba said. "I'd let you borrow some of my clothes, but I don't think I can go back home right now."

"Home," the priest said. "Is that what you just ran away from?"

Kaiba turned away from the priest, afraid of what else the man might see, even in the dark street.

"How did you know to come find me?" Kaiba asked.

"The magic that let me find you this far into the future has bound me to you," the priest said, slowly and deliberately, as if he was afraid that Kaiba was going to blow up at any moment. "I can sometimes feel spikes in your emotions and the magic responds to those. One minute I was with my pharaoh and the next I was here, watching you run down the street."

"So I'm stuck with you?"

"As long as I'm here," the priest replied.

"Then I'll have to make it a priority to get rid of you fast," Kaiba commented.

They sat in silence, neither looking at the other, until the priest broke it.

"Your brother thinks that you're deliberately alienating everyone at the game shop so that they stay away from you. Not only that, but he thinks that he's responsible for pushing you away."

Kaiba did turn to the priest when he heard that, but he remained quiet.

"He's pretty young, isn't he? He carries so much guilt and so much responsibility for someone of his age," the priest continued. "He loves you very much and is worried about you."

"He should worry about himself," Kaiba muttered.

"He said something about a person named Gozaburo," the priest said as if Kaiba hadn't spoken. "Mokuba seems to think that he's going to harm you if you're with him too long."

"Mokuba needs to keep his mouth shut," Kaiba said. "My life is no one's business but my own."

"He thinks your life is his business, too, considering that if you die, he's going to be left alone."

Kaiba didn't have a reply to that, so he chose to look up at the stars instead. He had made the decision to send Mokuba away because it was in the best interest of his brother. As long as Mokuba was away from him, he'd be safe, right? If that was the case, why did he feel like he'd made a huge mistake?

"You might not realize it, but you're doing him more harm by pushing him away."

"What do you know?" Kaiba replied, his anger finally getting the better of him. "What right do you have to interfere? You weren't here, priest. You didn't raise him and you didn't give up all of your…" Kaiba trailed off once the shock of actually having said those words out loud registered.

"I always wondered what it would have been like to have a little brother," the priest said. "Mokuba seems like a great kid."

"He is, despite how I raised him."

The priest got up and stood towering, but not threatening, over Kaiba.

"Maybe he's the way he is because of how you raised him," the man said. "Remember that you have a reason to live whenever you start thinking otherwise."

With that, the priest vanished, leaving Kaiba to wonder what he'd done to attract so many strange people.

* * *

It had gotten dark outside and no one had come to visit Yugi. 

There wasn't a clock in the room, but soft moonlight filtered through the thin curtains of the only window in the room, so he knew that it was night. The window was high on the wall, higher than Yugi could reach, which was why he hadn't paid much attention to it upon his first search of the room. Now, however, when it was apparent that no one would be coming, the window, and the freedom that it could provide, called out to him.

He was curious to see where he'd been taken, so he dragged one of the chairs from the fireplace and placed it directly underneath the window. He got on the chair, but he was still not high enough to look out the window. Cursing under his breath, Yugi considered bringing over the other chair, but discarded the possibility when he realized that he would never be able to hoist one heavy chair on top of the other. His gaze then traveled over to the bookcase and its many books, which gave him another idea.

He got seven books down from the bookcase and precariously balanced them on the chair back. Yugi climbed up onto the armrests and then carefully balanced himself on the books. He was high enough so that he could reach the window sill, which was wide enough to hold him, but not high enough to look over it and out the window. He gripped the window sill and got on his tiptoes, which gave him a little boost. He was finally able to see out the window, but could see nothing but darkness.

Suddenly, the books shifted and collapsed under his feet and he was left dangling. His feet couldn't reach the chair and if he let go, he would likely fall, bounce off the chair, and hit something he preferred not to hit. Having little choice, Yugi pulled himself up until he could put his foot on the window sill and then carefully placed all of his weight on it. Only the front half of his right foot fit on the window sill while the rest of his body leaned on the window. The foot began to cramp from holding all of his weight and he knew that he had to do something.

The darkness outside was so thick that all he could see with the little illumination that the moon provided was the roof of the house he was in. He couldn't see beyond, so if he went outside, he could be walking straight into security, or whoever had been put out there to watch him. On the other hand, if he waited inside, he would have no chance at all to escape. He had to try to get out.

Decision made, Yugi wasted no time. He didn't see any way to open the window, so he decided to simply break through it. He'd have to take his chances and hope that the room he was in was high enough so that the breaking glass wouldn't draw too much attention. He didn't have anything to break the window with, except his own body. He had little leverage to use, so he went for simplicity and hoped that the window wasn't too thick. He wrapped the trailing edge of the coat he was wearing around his closed fist and hit the window with as much force as he could muster in his position. With a satisfying crack, his wrist went right through. He hadn't counted on the speed he would generate, however, and as his foot lost its grip on the window sill, Yugi was thrust forward and out of the recently broken window. He felt burning pain on his face and arms as the shards of glass cut into his skin, but it was nothing compared to the crushing force on his right shoulder as he landed on it. He lost feeling in that arm and rolled helplessly down the sloped roof, the shingles underneath him tearing at his clothing and his skin. His left hand managed to grab onto something jutting out of the roof which stopped his fall a mere inches from the edge of the roof.

Yugi desperately searched for purchase and managed to find a small ledge that ran along the edge of the roof. He flattened his body so that he was fully on his back with both feet anchored on the ledge and let go of what he'd grabbed on to. He slipped down slightly, but the ledge held his weight. He was breathing heavily and he could feel sweat on his forehead, even though his surroundings were ice cold. The loss of his coat, socks and shoes suddenly made sense. Gozaburo had known that if Yugi tried to escape, he wouldn't be able to go far in this weather without the proper clothing. Yugi had little choice now, however, but to keep going regardless of the cold.

His right arm and shoulder were still numb, which frightened him. The fabric that had been wrapped around his fist loosened, and Yugi gently moved his fingers. Spikes of pain shot up his arm, but that was preferable to feeling nothing at all. He hoped that he hadn't damaged the shoulder too much. After all, he was on the roof of a house that was probably several stories high which made having two working arms a priority.

Now that he had his bearings, Yugi took the time to look at his surroundings. Other than the moonlight, there was no illumination. The house was surrounded by a forest and it was far enough away from civilization that he could see no other lights from surrounding houses or roads. He didn't even see any lights around the house like he would normally see when a house was lived in. There was no porch light to welcome anyone home and no light on the drive way to guide them safely. A good ways above him, he could faintly see the glow of the light from the room he'd been in and counted himself lucky not to have broken his neck after falling as far as he'd fallen.

His first priority was to get down to the ground, preferably intact. He had to find a way off the roof and he had to do it fast, before someone came looking for him. Yugi shifted his weight a little and the ledge he'd been standing on snapped underneath his feet. Before he knew it, he had left the roof and was free falling towards the ground below.

When he hit the ground, the breath rushed out of him in a whoosh. He felt numb all over and wondered if he'd broken his neck. Breathing became a chore and the more he tried to inhale, the more difficult it became. He fought down the panic that was threatening to claw its way up and out and was finally able to get his breathing under control. Slowly, the feeling returned to his body. It ached and stung, but it felt whole. He'd landed on something soft and squishy that made sounds as he moved, which was probably the only reason he hadn't broken his neck. Whatever he'd landed on was also wet, which was not going to help matters with the cold.

When he felt strong enough to move, he sat up and realized that he'd landed in mud. His feet had sunk a bit below the surface and Yugi gave thanks to whatever god was watching over him that he hadn't landed somewhere else. His body ached, but he didn't think anything was broken. Bruised, maybe, but probably not broken.

Painfully, he got to his feet. His right ankle hurt and protested when Yugi put any weight on it. He could move it, but not too well. He also began to shiver as the cool breeze hit his now wet clothing. He pulled the coat tighter around himself, but the material was thin, and wet, and would provide little protection. He listened to the sounds around him, on the look out for footsteps or voices, but he heard nothing. He'd begun to think, when he was on the roof and hadn't seen any lights around, that maybe Gozaburo had dumped him in this house and left him alone, thinking that he wouldn't get out or that even if he did, he'd either kill himself trying or have no where to go.

Looking around, Yugi realized that he had nowhere to go but back inside the house through the front door, or out into the woods where he didn't know what he'd run into. He was cold and he was in pain, but he wasn't about to return to the house. If he was wrong and someone had been left to guard him, Yugi wasn't going to be locked up again.

Carefully and as fast as his ankle would let him, Yugi made his way into the woods.

* * *

Jumping the fence was no problem for Seto Kaiba, even in his less than stellar state. Once he was inside the property, he knelt and stashed his laptop computer behind some of the bushes that bordered the small backyard. After looking around to make sure that there were no lights on in the house in front of him, Kaiba quickly crossed the empty backyard and made his way to the back door of the house where he made short work of the lock. He opened the door and stepped into the kitchen with very little sound. Yugi's house could use a little more security, but Kaiba doubted that they had the money necessary to buy a state-of-the-art security system like the one he had in place at his mansion. Then again, Yugi and his grandfather had much less to protect. The lack of security was to his advantage tonight as he made his way to the room where he'd stayed with Mokuba and gently opened the door. He doubted that Mokuba would be awake at this hour of the night, but Kaiba still wanted to be careful. 

The conversation he'd had with Seto had made him take a look at the current situation from his brother's point of view and he'd come to the conclusion that he'd made a mistake in making the deal with Gozaburo. After the confrontation he'd had with his brother earlier, Kaiba had realized that Mokuba wasn't hesitating to come near him out of fear, which was what Kaiba had originally thought, but had more to do with Mokuba not knowing how to approach him. Kaiba had wanted to get Mokuba as far away from him as possible to spare his brother that fear. He had come to see that if he sent Mokuba away now, he'd only be taking away the one constant the boy had always had. Kaiba still clearly remembered what it had been like to suddenly feel alone in the world after his father had died and he would never let Mokuba experience that.

Kaiba let himself into the room and walked to the bed where his brother was sleeping. Mokuba's sleep was not an easy one since the boy had half of the covers tangled up around his legs and the other half on the floor. Kaiba picked up the discarded comforter, untangled the sheet from his brother's legs, and then spread them both out and laid them over his brother. He sat on the bed beside the slumbering boy and brushed the hair away from the sleeping face.

"I don't know what to do, Mokuba," Kaiba whispered as he continued to brush his brother's hair. "I'm so confused and so afraid."

The words felt raw in his throat, but once the first one had been said, he couldn't hold them back.

"I used to be so sure of myself, but now I don't know how I'm supposed to keep going."

Kaiba felt the sting of tears in his eyes and he closed them. He hated himself for that weakness. He had worked hard to build a wall around his emotions for so long, but now it was as if that wall had huge chunks missing that allowed the anger, confusion, pain, and longing to seep out like slowly oozing blood and rise to the surface where he was afraid someone would see them if they bothered to look closely enough.

"I don't know myself any more, Mokuba, and I don't know how I can protect you if it takes everything I am just to keep the raging cloud that surrounds me from suffocating me. I don't want you away from me, but I don't know how else to keep you safe."

A solitary tear escaped the confines of his eyelid and rolled slowly down his cheek to then fall on his brother's cheek. Kaiba lowered his head until his forehead was resting on Mokuba's. The younger boy's forehead was warm and the touch felt familiar and comforting.

"I love you, Mokuba."

There was a soft sigh and then a soft, sleepy voice whispered "I love you too, Seto."

Kaiba's eyes snapped open and he raised his head, expecting to see his brother awake, but saw instead that Mokuba's eyes were still closed. He waited a moment for his beating heart to settle, before getting up from the bed. He'd come to reassure himself that what he was going to do when the sun rose in the morning was the right thing and his brother's whispered words had sealed the deal.

He let himself out of the room and then out of the house, into the quiet backyard. He looked up at the moon and remembered the conversation he'd had with Yugi in this same place, when he'd admitted that he would never be able to look up at the blue sky again. He'd made the statement at the spur of the moment, but it was an admitted weakness, something Yugi could use against him if he wanted.

As always when he dropped his guard, the memories flooded his mind and he became paralyzed with remembered fear, anguish, and shame. The moon became the scorching, desert sun and his surroundings became filled with his desperate screams. His mind still remembered every searing touch and he kicked and flailed in hopes of getting away from his attackers.

When he came back to himself, he was on his hands and knees, throwing up. He retched until there was nothing left in his stomach to throw up and he tasted blood in his mouth. He also felt someone's hands on his back and he immediately recoiled.

"Easy, it's okay."

He knew the voice, but his brain wasn't registering whose voice it was, all it was telling him to do was to flee as far and as fast as he could. He tried, but his legs wouldn't hold him up and he ended up on the ground again. He was gasping and he could feel moisture on his cheeks. Had it started to rain?

"Kaiba… Seto, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

The owner of the voice suddenly clicked in Kaiba's mind and he looked up to see Mr. Moto kneeling beside him. The elder man had a hand out as if to touch him, but then thought better of it and dropped it down to his side. He didn't say anything further, simply waited for Kaiba to make the next move.

Kaiba forced air into his lungs and wished that he'd brought a coat so he wouldn't be shivering so much. The memory wasn't going away like it normally did after he'd gained enough control over his mind to shut it off. It was still playing in his mind and it was only the feel of the cool grass on his hands that kept him from being submerged in the memory once again. He rubbed his hands over it as a reminder that he wasn't lying on sand anymore and never would be again.

"What happened, Seto, what's wrong?"

The old man's voice brought Kaiba out of his desperate fight for control and forced him to focus on the present.

"What are you doing out here?" Kaiba finally managed to say.

"I was in the kitchen getting a drink of water when I saw you," the old man answered. "When I saw you collapse, I came out to see what was wrong."

Kaiba's head turned towards the house and he wondered who else had seen him.

"Don't worry, everyone else is asleep."

When he felt somewhat calmer, Kaiba got to his feet. He had taken a step towards the back gate in preparation to depart when Mr. Moto's voice stopped him.

"You can tell me, Seto. I swear to you on my honor that it will not leave this backyard."

Mr. Moto had also gotten to his feet. He was staring at Kaiba expectantly and for a split second, Kaiba wondered what it would be like to just let go.

"I can help," Mr. Moto continued.

"No, you can't," Kaiba replied.

"I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong," the old man continued. "I know it has something to do with whatever happened in Egypt. You've not been yourself since you got back."

Kaiba's anger flared and he stalked towards the old man, covering the distance between them in mere milliseconds. The old man didn't flinch and didn't step back. Kaiba wanted to hurt him, wanted to shock him into silence, wanted to make him feel as helpless as he felt.

"You want to know what happened in Egypt?" Kaiba asked, his voice low, rough, and still raw from the vomiting earlier. "What happened was that the perfectly constructed image I had of myself and what I am was shredded to pieces and destroyed before my eyes. A group of bandits roughed me up a little, broke a couple of bones, and then for fun, decided that they were going to teach me a lesson by ra –"

He shut his mouth so hard that his jaw stung with the force. Mr. Moto's face was calm, unreadable. His violet eyes looked at Kaiba as if they had all of the time in the world to wait for Kaiba to finish what he'd started to say. When Kaiba refused to say more, Mr. Moto spoke.

"You have to say it, Seto. You can't begin to heal until you can admit it happened."

Did he want to heal? Did he have a right to heal? After all, hadn't the majority of his life been about people taking things from him when it suited them and using him when they wanted to? Hadn't he done his own share of taking and using when it had suited him? Didn't he deserve what he'd gotten? He couldn't look up at the elder Moto, so he continued to stare at the grass.

"I'm lost," he finally said. "I can't find myself anymore."

His legs were threatening to give out again, so he dropped to the ground and pulled his knees up to his chest. Mr. Moto also sat on the ground, but kept some distance between them.

"I don't understand why they did it," Kaiba finally said. "They all took a turn… they all raped me."

The word felt heavy in his mouth and made him feel dirty and ashamed. He didn't think he would ever be able to say it again.

"Like a whore, they used me for what they wanted. They enjoyed it; I could see it in their faces. I wanted them to stop, but they wouldn't… they didn't listen to me. I don't understand why… why did they do it?"

He could feel his body trembling and heard his teeth chattering, but he didn't care. He was too tired to fight it anymore.

"Yugi was yelling at them to stop too, but they wouldn't listen to him either."

"Yugi was there?" Mr. Moto asked.

Kaiba nodded. "Don't worry; they didn't… do it to him."

Was that bitterness in his voice? Was he angry that they'd hurt him but they hadn't hurt Yugi in the same way? What kind of person did that make him?

"It's okay to feel sad, Seto. It's okay to be angry, and it's okay to grieve for what they took from you," Mr. Moto said. "I'm not going to hold it against you if you want to cry or scream or yell… you have the right to express your feelings in any way you wish. What they did to you was inexcusable, unforgivable, and I know you won't believe me now, but it was not your fault… and from now on, you don't have to carry this burden alone."

A key in Seto Kaiba's heart turned and the box that had held a lifetime of emotions suddenly burst open. The torrent rushed through him so fast that he lost himself for a moment. A hand appeared in front of him and Kaiba grabbed onto to it like a life preserver. A sob escaped him, soft, but full of anguish. He expected Mr. Moto's hand to pull away from his own as soon as tears had slipped out of his eyes and landed on the wrinkled hand, but it didn't. Instead, a second hand joined the first, covering his cold and stained hand in warmth.

Once the first sob had escaped, there was no holding back the others. The hand that wasn't holding Mr. Moto's clutched at his chest to keep the pieces of his heart from seeping out along with the emotions. The painful ache underneath his hand was deep. Kaiba wondered just how much his heart had broken and if he was ever going to be able to piece it back together. Mr. Moto sat with him the entire time, lending his silent strength through the grip he steadily kept on Kaiba's hand.

Neither man noticed the sun as it started to rise.

* * *

Next time: Mr. Moto's reaction... the gang gets a surprise... Yugi's in trouble (again). 


	33. Growing Up Too Soon

**Greetings and Happy Birthday Intruders!**

I can't believe that it's been three years since I first posted this story. What kind of author does that make me, if I can't even finish my own story? I want to give a heartfelt thanks to those of you that have been around since the beginning. It's been a long road and I appreciate that you've stuck with the story. It's certainly been reassuring to me as a writer and I appreciate it more than I can properly express. To those of you that have joined along the way, I thank you for also sticking with it. I know that it can get frustrating when there are no updates for a while, but rest assured that this story will be finished, hopefully before the 4th birthday comes around.

Special thanks to LuoLiBei for being a wonderful beta and for keeping me honest. Thanks also to Nenya85 for letting me rant about how difficult Kaiba and Solomon were being and for making helpful comments that made the writing of this chapter a lot less painful.

**Recap: Yugi escapes his prison, only to find himself hurt and alone in the middle of nowhere. Kaiba finally breaks down and admits to Solomon that he was raped. **

Let the aftermath begin...

Chapter posted 7/2/06

* * *

**Part 33: Growing Up Too Soon**

_The hospital was creepy. He'd always hated the sterile, impersonal atmosphere and the smell of antiseptic that always remained long after he had left the place. _

'_Down the hallway, make a right at the first intersection and it'll be your first door on the right,' the nurse he'd asked for directions had instructed him. He followed the instructions to the letter and soon found himself in front of room 925 where a U.S. Air Force Airman stood guard. _

"_What can I do for you, Sir?" the airman, who looked to be about his age, asked._

"_I'm Solomon Moto. I was told I could come by and see my friend."_

_The airman thought for a moment. "Yes, Sir. Mrs. Jackson told me to expect you. Go ahead."_

_The airman opened the door for him and Solomon stepped through the threshold and into darkness. The blinds were closed and the only light in the room came from a small lamp on the bedside table. There was no one else in the room, which surprised Solomon. He'd expected Jeff's mother, who had been the one to tell him that Jeff had been brought to Kyoto, to be present. The various machines working to monitor his friend's condition made the only sound in the room. _

_Solomon made his way to the bed and sat on the chair that had been placed beside it. He had avoided looking at the young man on the bed since he'd entered, but now he had no choice. What he saw made him recoil in shock. Jeff's face was bruised and dotted with bandages. His right eye was swollen shut, and his lips were cracked and bloody. Jeff's right arm and right leg were in a cast. He was lying on his side, and his free hand clutched the sheets as if he were in the middle of a nightmare. _

_Marie Jackson hadn't known many details about what happened to Jeff. All the Air Force had told her was that her son had been on a mission where he'd been captured by enemy forces and later rescued by his teammates. They didn't tell her how long Jeff had been held prisoner or what they had done to him, but she'd been able to tell a lot by the medical report the doctor had given her. They'd tortured Jeff, broken a lot of bones in his body, and tried to get him to divulge information by any means necessary. The doctor had told Marie that Jeff was lucky to be alive and had a long road to recovery. Marie had called Solomon immediately, hoping that an old friend from college could get through to her son when she and her husband couldn't. _

_Solomon and Jeff had met in Tokyo, where they'd both been attending Tokyo University. They'd been eighteen and away from home for the first time, so they'd hit it off right away, despite the different cultural backgrounds. Solomon had traveled to the United States to visit Jeff's family a couple of times and Solomon had taken Jeff to visit his family in Osaka a few times as well. His friend had always been upbeat, friendly, and energetic. He'd always had a passion for military service, so it had been no surprise that while Solomon had chosen to enter graduate school to pursue his passion for Archaeology Jeff had decided to join the Air Force. They'd parted ways after college, two years ago, but had kept in touch. He hadn't expected Jeff's mother to call him, nor had he ever expected to see his friend like this. _

_Jeff's eyes suddenly snapped open with a gasp and his good hand reached out for something only Jeff could see. Solomon took the hand, to reassure his friend that he wasn't alone, and was surprised when Jeff reacted even more violently. He jerked the hand away from Solomon and pressed it against his chest. Jeff looked like he was trying to shrink in on himself, to become invisible. _

"_Jeff, its Solomon Moto. You're in a hospital in Kyoto. You're safe now."_

_Jeff looked at Solomon as if he were looking at a potential enemy. It took him a while to finally calm down and realize that he wasn't in the place of his nightmares anymore. _

"_Solomon," Jeff said. He looked around the hospital room, as if seeing it for the first time, before settling his eyes back on Solomon. "What are you doing here?"_

"_Your mom called me. I wanted to see how you were."_

_Jeff sighed and shook his head. "I'm alive, but I'm not sure whether I should be."_

_The statement caught Solomon off guard. He'd never seen anyone he knew hurt this badly and he didn't understand why Jeff wondered whether he should be alive or not. _

"_Why do you say that, Jeff? Of course you should be alive!"_

_Jeff chuckled, but it sounded maniacal._

"_Some things are just not meant to be lived through, Solomon."

* * *

_

Solomon's eyes opened to soft light streaming through the window. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest at the memory. He hadn't thought about Jeff in years, but it was no surprise that he was thinking of his friend now. A few months after the visit, Jeff's mother had called Solomon to let him know that Jeff had shot himself. Marie had been beside herself with grief, and had finally told Solomon everything she'd known about Jeff's time in captivity. The men who had captured Jeff had done to him what the bandits in Egypt had done to Kaiba, and Jeff had not been able to handle it. It was only after Jeff's funeral that Solomon had understood Jeff's words to him in the hospital.

"_Some things are just not meant to be lived through, Solomon."_

Jeff never told anyone about what happened. The incident had slowly eaten away at the young man, who had been 24, quite a few years older than Kaiba was now, until death had been his only option. Solomon had sworn to himself last night that he would not sit by and watch a young life be torn apart because a group of bandits had decided that the young man was worthless. It scared Solomon that Kaiba might agree with that assessment, which is why he'd refused to let Kaiba go. It wasn't going to be easy, not by a long shot, but he was determined to be there, whether Kaiba wanted him to be or not.

Solomon's eyes drifted to the bed he'd been sitting beside, where both of the Kaiba brothers slept. His eyes traveled to the elder Kaiba, who was lying on his side with his knees drawn up to his chest, facing Solomon. Seto's face reflected the internal turmoil the teenager was suffering through, even in sleep, but Solomon was grateful that the boy was at least sleeping. Kaiba looked like he hadn't slept or eaten in days, and it had taken a lot of persuasion to get the boy to fight his ingrained reaction to pain, which was to go and suffer in silence and solitude, and come inside the house and lay down with his brother. It was a testament to how worn out Kaiba had been after a night spent in the backyard dealing with his inner demons that he'd agreed with very little comment.

Solomon ran his hand through Kaiba's hair, hoping that the motion would soothe the teenager's demons. It usually worked for Yugi when his grandson was having nightmares, and Solomon hoped it would work here, too. He had to be careful, though, because the simple touch could also set off Kaiba's defenses and invoke panic. The frown that had been present on Kaiba's face lessened and then disappeared all together. Kaiba's face finally relaxed in sleep, and Solomon couldn't help noting how young the boy really was. While awake, Kaiba did his best to scare people away by putting on a mask of coldness and indifference, which added years to his face. However, in sleep he had no reason to pretend and could let down his guard, if only for a few hours.

Sighing, Solomon removed his hand from where it rested on the elder Kaiba's forehead, and his thoughts turned to his grandson. Kaiba's whispered statement that his attackers had not listened to Yugi had left him cold and had caused his mind to run through various scenarios that involved Yugi attempting to stop who knew how many men from raping Kaiba, and then, when Yugi hadn't been able to stop the attack, being forced to watch it. Kaiba's statement that Yugi hadn't been hurt in the same way had not done anything to reassure Solomon. Not because he thought Kaiba was lying, but because Kaiba hadn't been in the best shape to come to any logical conclusions at the time. What if, once the bandits had been finished with Kaiba, they'd turned on his grandson as well? Who would have stopped them from doing so? Yugi had been acting strangely ever since he'd returned from Egypt: he'd been withdrawn, quiet, and moody. Solomon gasped softly as he realized that Yugi had been acting with the same behavior as he'd observed from Kaiba. What if all of this time, Yugi had been keeping something similar inside himself, afraid to let it out for fear of what others might think of him? Yugi's normally expressive eyes had been dull and full of anguish the last time Solomon had spoken to him, and it made his heart ache to think that, wherever Yugi was now, he was alone, afraid, and in emotional turmoil similar to Kaiba's.

Thinking of Yugi's disappearance made him look up at Seto Kaiba's face one more time. The young man hadn't come to the house and dragged Yugi away, but he was the reason that Yugi had left in the first place and had gone to Kaiba Corporation, which had facilitated his kidnapping. Solomon didn't have it in his heart to feel anger at the teenager sleeping just a few feet away from him, however. Gozaburo Kaiba was the one that most likely had Yugi now, and he was the one that Solomon would focus his anger on.

Solomon got off the floor, silently cursing his old, worn knees as they punished him for spending the last few hours sitting on the floor. The sun was shinning brightly already, even though it was still early in the morning. The kids would sleep for a few more hours and if he'd been younger and stronger, he'd have carried Mokuba upstairs to where Joey and Bakura were sharing Yugi's bed so that Seto could sleep here in peace until his body was ready to wake up. He was way too old now, so he hoped that the younger Kaiba would realize the importance of his brother resting and leave the room quietly when he woke up.

He stepped outside of the room and closed the door gently behind him. He hadn't slept the night before, except for the minutes he'd dozed off, and his old body felt every minute of it. He went into the kitchen to make some coffee and was surprised to find High Priest Seto already there. He was looking at the appliances, examining each one as if he were trying to figure out how they worked.

"Good morning," Solomon said.

The priest turned, surprised. "Good morning, Mr. Moto. I was just looking at these strange machines," he said. "They are fascinating."

"Its modern technology at its best," Solomon said.

He got out what he needed to make coffee and got everything into the coffee maker. He was going to go upstairs to shower and change and would get the coffee going when he came back down to make breakfast.

"Did he come last night?" the priest asked.

Solomon regarded the man who was the spitting image of the boy sleeping in the next room and wondered why there was a glint of smugness in the priest's eyes. He had to admit that the whole idea of having this man, and the pharaoh, in his house was strange, but he'd seen plenty of strange things in his life so he could deal with this one as well.

"Did who come last night?" Solomon asked.

"Kaiba."

Solomon's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Did you have something to do with it?"

The priest smiled slightly. "So he did come," he said. "I paid him a visit and made him realize a few things. I was hoping he'd come and see his brother and maybe rethink the crazy scheme he had going."

"He's still here," Solomon said. "He's sleeping."

It was the high priest's turn to be surprised now. "He's still here?"

Solomon didn't know what else to say now. He was not going to break the confidence Kaiba had placed in him, but everyone would eventually find out that Kaiba was here when the young man woke up. The priest considered the words for a moment, and then a knowing look entered his eyes. Solomon had a feeling that the priest knew about what had happened as well.

"You know, don't you?"

The priest nodded. He sat on one of the stools beside the counter and played with the coffee filters Solomon hadn't put away.

"It was supposed to be me," the priest finally said. "The thieves, the ones that attacked Kaiba, thought that he was me."

Solomon thought he finally understood why the priest and the pharaoh had traveled all this way. The priest had said as much to Yami the day before, but he hadn't understood what he'd meant then.

"Please help him," the priest added. "He's so alone and so confused… and he's so hurt."

Solomon nodded, having seen all of that already. "He won't have to deal with it alone, I promise."

They were both silent for a moment, until a thought occurred to Solomon.

"Kaiba needs to rest, by himself if preferable, so could you take Mokuba upstairs and lay him on my bed? That way he won't disturb his brother when he wakes up."

The priest nodded and headed for the bedroom to do as asked. Solomon replaced what he'd taken out of the cabinets and made his way upstairs. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

He was warm and he was comfortable. For the first time in a long time, his shoulders didn't hurt from tension and he felt rested. He snuggled into the pillow for a moment, and had almost drifted back to sleep, when the strangeness of the situation brought him to full wakefulness. He never slept late and he definitely didn't enjoy sleeping, not with the nightmares that usually accompanied his slumber. He opened his eyes, only to find that they wouldn't open all the way. He panicked for a moment, until the reason for his swollen eyes came to him, and the previous night's events rushed back into his consciousness. 

Kaiba sat up on the strange bed and rubbed at his eyes, willing them to open all the way. He had cried more in the past week than he had in his lifetime and the fact brought him a wave of embarrassment and self-loathing. He was not weak enough to succumb to tears, and yet he had, in front of Mr. Moto, no less. How could he have been so weak? How could he have been so stupid to have let his guard down like that? How could he have been so desperate that he had actually admitted to the old man that the bandits had…?

Kaiba clenched his hands into fists. He had only wanted to shock the man into leaving him alone; he hadn't wanted to admit to his deepest, darkest secret. The image of himself gripping Mr. Moto's hand like a stupid, lost child, came back to him, and brought with it a wave of disgust and shame so strong that he felt nauseous. He was better than that… he had to be, because people prayed on weakness and exploited it.

He got out of bed and threw the covers he'd been wrapped in aside. He'd only made the situation worse by agreeing to stay here. He should have left the house and gone somewhere to lick his wounds in private, where no one would see him, no one would judge him, and no one would have ammunition to use against him later. Why had he stayed?

Voices from the kitchen caught his attention and he cringed. He heard Wheeler and the white haired kid talking about breakfast. He also heard his brother's voice, and his conversation with Priest Seto came rushing back to him as well. His reason for having stayed last night became clear and, even though a selfish part of him wished that he had left, it wasn't his custom to go back on his decisions once he'd made them. Regardless of his feelings on the matter, Mokuba was more important. If he had to put up with Mr. Moto's pity for the sake of his brother, then he would do so, at least until he righted the wrong he'd made to the old man and to his grandson.

Kaiba straightened his clothing as best he could, ran shaking hands through his hair, and walked out of the room. His long legs quickly covered the distance down the small hallway and into the kitchen and he found himself staring at four pairs of eyes. Two pairs immediately showed surprise and then anger. One pair showed joy at seeing him, and the other, the pair he met defiantly, showed relief.

Kaiba retained eye contact with Mr. Moto for a while, searching those violet eyes for pity or judgment. He frowned when he saw none of that. Mr. Moto's eyes reflected the same openness and patience that they had the night before. The man bowed his head slightly, as if acknowledging what Kaiba had just realized. For the first time in his life, Kaiba had handed a piece of himself to someone else and Mr. Moto had taken that piece and tucked it away for safekeeping. It was a responsibility that Kaiba now knew Mr. Moto had fully embraced and did not regret.

"You're just in time for breakfast, Kaiba," Mr. Moto said.

"Big brother, I'm so glad you're here," Mokuba exclaimed, his eyes bright and a wide smile on his face.

Mokuba's words to him last night, his whispered 'I love you,' had meant the world to him, and seeing the look of happiness on the kid's face right now made putting up with everyone else in the room worth it.

"What the hell are you doing here, Kaiba," Joey growled. "You are not welcome in this house."

"What is your problem, Wheeler?" Kaiba snarled.

"You handed Yugi over to that psycho father of yours and you expect us to just welcome you like nothing happened?" Wheeler snarled right back.

"First, he's not my father and second, my reason for being here is not your business."

The sharp sound of a plate being set on the table caught everyone's attention and shut the mutt up.

"This is my house and only I have the right to decide who is welcome here and who is not," Mr. Moto said as he placed a bowl of steaming miso soup in front of Mokuba, who had taken a seat to Kaiba's right. "If any of you disagree with that, you are welcome to leave."

Wheeler opened his mouth to complain further, but then thought better of it. He glared at Kaiba one last time for good measure, before digging into the bowl of soup Mr. Moto had placed in front of him. Mr. Moto placed a bowl in front of Kaiba, and he was tempted to leave the room just to get away from the nauseating smell. The nausea had very little to do with Mr. Moto's cooking and more to do with the fact that Kaiba rarely ate breakfast, but one look from Mr. Moto halted Kaiba before he'd even taken a step.

"You look like you haven't eaten in days, so you will sit and you will eat," he said to Kaiba, before turning to everyone else. "That goes for all of you. You can't expect to get through the day without proper nutrition."

Kaiba sat on the only empty stool around the small table and did as instructed. He was surprised to realize, once he'd taken the first bite, that he actually was hungry. Before he knew it, he'd finished the entire thing and was still hungry. Another steaming bowl was placed in front of him, and he raised his head to protest, when Kaiba saw that Mr. Moto had refilled his own bowl as well. The man shrugged at Kaiba.

"I got carried away and made too much. We might as well eat it before it goes bad."

Kaiba clenched his hand around the spoon, but said nothing. The miso soup really was good and the warmth of the broth helped settle his frayed nerves. Beside him, Mokuba kept sneaking glances in his direction every now and then, even as the boy struggled to keep his long hair from getting in the broth.

Before long, they were finished with breakfast. Mokuba helped Mr. Moto pick up and wash the dirty dishes and Kaiba, Wheeler, and Bakura sat around the table in uncomfortable silence. Tired of putting up with the idiots, Kaiba got up and was at the back door when Mokuba's voice caught his attention.

"Are you leaving, Seto?"

The fear in his little brother's voice tore at him and made him feel guilty for being the source.

"I left my laptop outside. I'm going to go get it," Kaiba said and left the kitchen.

Once outside, he paused and took a deep breath. He walked quickly to the back gate, avoiding the spot where he'd had his little breakdown the night before, and retrieved the laptop from where he'd hidden it. He needed it, not only to keep track of Gozaburo, but to find where the man had taken Yugi. Not eager to go back inside the house, he sat on one of the chairs on the small patio and booted up the machine. His satellite connection should still be working, so he should have access to his files at Kaiba Corp as well as the Internet. He had an idea of where Gozaburo had taken Yugi, but he had to double check the address. He remembered the house, because he'd spent many days, and had endured many lessons, there when he'd first come to live with Gozaburo, but he couldn't remember how to get there. A few minutes later, he had the location on a map and had the quickest route to get there. He no longer had a car, but had the foresight to bring some money with him, so they could always take a cab. He also had money in several accounts that only he and Mokuba had access to, so surviving until he killed Gozaburo wouldn't be a problem.

The back door opened and Mr. Moto stepped out onto the patio.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm repaying a debt," he said.

"You don't owe me anything," Mr. Moto said. "I didn't do anything I didn't want to do."

Kaiba chose to leave the comment unacknowledged. It was better that way. After all, the fewer words spoken, the better it would be for the both of them.

"I think I know where your grandson is," Kaiba said when he finally turned to face the old man. "There is a property just outside the city limits that I still own, but it's been empty for a while. The place used to be important to Gozaburo so I have a feeling he'd take Yugi there."

Mr. Moto's eyes darkened with worry. "When can we go get him?"

"We can leave right now if you want to," Kaiba replied.

"Good. Let me get everyone," the man said and went back inside the house.

Kaiba closed the laptop and looked out over the backyard, remembering the feel of the soft grass under his palms. The memory threatened to bring others with it, so Kaiba clamped down on everything before it could overwhelm him once again. He didn't have time for this, and he wasn't about to repeat what had happened last night

He'd been weak once; he would not be weak again.

* * *

"_Murderer"_

"_Criminal"_

"_Killer"_

"_Slaughterer"_

_The words hung around Yugi like storm clouds, full and ready to burst. Unlike storm clouds, however, Yugi was sure that if the words were to burst, they'd bring forth geysers of bright, red blood that would mingle with the blood already on his hands. _

_He ran towards the small pinpoint of light he could see in the distance. He could not see his surroundings, but as he ran, he could feel hands pulling at him, grabbing, sliding along his bare arms when they couldn't find purchase, only to pull at his loose clothing. Yugi fought them off and continued to run. He could not falter, he could not fall. If he did, he was sure that the hands would pull him down, bury him under their dead weight, and never let him up. _

"_You're a coward."_

"_Face us like a man."_

_Yugi clenched his teeth and forced air into his lungs. The sound of his labored breathing was the only other thing to break the silence of this place, but it was not enough to drown the bitter accusations. _

"_I know you can hear us, boy," Hori's voice came through loud and clear. "We live inside of you now."_

_Yugi shook his head in denial, even though the movement would not be seen in the darkness. The pinpoint of light in front of him had grown considerably and the thought of getting out of the darkness urged him on, his legs pumping faster, his breath coming in even more explosive pants. _

"_We're going to eat at you, boy, until your mind snaps."_

_This new voice Yugi did not recognize, but he didn't care. He was sure it belonged to one of the men he'd killed. A hand suddenly wrapped around his ankle, and Yugi almost fell. Instead, he pulled his foot out of the grasp and continued to run. He was almost to the light, which turned out to be an opening to the outside. He could not see what lay outside, because of the bright sun shining into the darkness, but he was glad to see a way out regardless. _

"_You are weak."_

_This voice was so unexpected that Yugi immediately ground to a halt, just steps away from the doorway to freedom. He looked around, but the darkness would not let him find the face that voice belonged to. _

"_You would be nothing without me."_

_The voice came from behind him, and Yugi turned. The light streaming into the darkness fell on a very similar face, a face Yugi looked at every day in his bathroom mirror: identical, except for the red eyes. _

"_Yami"_

_Yugi's voice was barely more than a whisper, but the spirit heard it and grinned. Yami grabbed Yugi by the shoulders and pulled him close, until their faces were almost touching. _

"_You have finally become what I hoped you would. You are a killer, just like I am."_

_Yami's face transformed into Hori's and the man pulled Yugi closer. Dozens of other hands joined Hori's and began to pull Yugi down. Yugi pushed away with every ounce of strength he could muster. The hands dropped off, one by one, and Yugi managed to run out of the darkness and into a bright desert: the same desert that would forever haunt his dreams. When he looked back, all he saw was desert; there was no trace of the place he'd just come from. _

_When Yugi turned back, he was facing the mounds of sand where he'd buried the bandits. Their voices were still clear in his head, and he found himself moving forward until he was in front of the closest one. The wind blew, and with it came horrifying screams. He turned around once again, only to come face to face with the group of bandits as they attacked Kaiba. Kaiba's head was turned to one side, facing Yugi, and he could see Kaiba's eyes clenched shut as tears ran down the side of his face. The muscles of his bare arms were bunching as he struggled against the pair of knees that held his arms pinned to the sand. Yugi could also see one of Kaiba's legs as it was being held up by another pair of dirty hands. Kaiba's throat constricted with every scream and Yugi felt the sound burn itself into every pore of his body. _

_Kaiba stopped screaming and opened his eyes. The once bright, defiant blue eyes were dull and not even the tears that pooled in them, or the shining sun, could return the brightness to them. Kaiba's mouth was slightly open and blood trickled out of the corner of it to run down his cheek and pool on the sand below. The men's laughter, their grunts, and their cruel comments also burned themselves into Yugi's mind and as his fingers clenched into fists, he wished that he had something, anything, with which to hit the men. He had to get them away from Kaiba before they killed him. _

_Yugi moved closer and it took him a while to realize that the men were gone and only silence remained. The wind still blew, and brought with it the sharp, coppery smell of blood. Kaiba was still lying on the sand in front of him, nude, his legs splayed and his arms still above his head. He was covered in blood, so much blood, and his breath came in short, gurgling gasps. He was still facing Yugi, and even though his eyes were still dull, they had focused and were staring at Yugi. _

_He saw Kaiba's mouth move, but could not hear what the older teenager had said. Yugi kneeled and leaned down so that his ear was next to Kaiba's mouth, and almost wished that he hadn't. _

"_I want to die," Kaiba whispered. _

"_No," Yugi said. _

_His head jerked up and he would have moved away, but one of Kaiba's hands had grabbed a handful of his hair and was keeping Yugi inches from his face. The blood that was trickling out of Kaiba's mouth went from a trickle to a small stream and Yugi couldn't look away from it. _

"_You killed them, Yugi. Kill me, too."_

_Yugi looked into Kaiba's eyes and saw a loss so deep that it made Yugi hurt. He began to cry. _

"_You don't have to die," Yugi said. "I won't let you."_

_Kaiba's hold on Yugi's hair tightened. "I don't have anything left to live for, not like this."_

_Kaiba's hand let go of Yugi's hair and fell to the sand with a soft thud. His eyes shifted away from Yugi until they were staring at that far away place again. Kaiba's breathing was slowing, becoming more labored, and the blood dripping from his mouth continued to increase. _

_There was nothing Yugi could do, not anymore. He hadn't meant to kill the bandits. He'd done it to stop them from hurting Kaiba, but it had been too late anyway. Kaiba was going to die too and almost a dozen deaths would be in vain. Beside him, Kaiba had stopped breathing and his broken body was still. _

_Yugi tipped his head back and screamed.

* * *

_

Yugi jerked awake with a strangled sob.

He got to his feet, paying little attention to the nasty burst of pain from his ankle, and rushed out of the little cave he'd found his way into last night. His mind was too weighed down with grief to pay much attention to his surroundings. He was sobbing so hard that he could barely catch a breath, and he had to keep reminding himself that Kaiba had not died, that the teenager was very much alive. He wasn't himself, but he was alive and would recover. Yugi, on the other hand, wasn't sure if he, himself, would ever recover.

He was a murderer. He'd killed, regardless of the situation or the need. Whether the men that had attacked Kaiba had deserved it or not, he had taken their lives. What he'd done was no better than what the men themselves had done. If Kaiba had asked him, as the teenager had in the dream, to kill him, would Yugi had agreed? Would he have put Kaiba out of his misery right then and there?

Yugi was headed straight for what looked like a group of bushes. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a little voice was screaming at him to get a grip and pay attention, because he didn't know the terrain of the area well, but he wasn't paying attention to logic. He barreled through the bushes to suddenly find that there was nothing underneath his feet. In the instant before he started to fall, he looked down at the small river flowing below him. In his panic, he'd walked right off the edge of a cliff.

As he fell, he managed to grab a protruding rock. His bad shoulder protested the extra weight on it, which caused his right hand to immediately let go, leaving only his left hand on the rock. He dangled there for a moment, his weight putting pressure on his left shoulder and arm.

He was tired. He'd spend half the night walking through the darkness until he'd found the little cave he'd settled in, only to be submerged in darkness and horrible nightmares. He'd taken the lives of ten men… would his death be enough payment in return? Yugi smiled sadly, as tears continued to stream down his face. It may not be payment enough, but it was all he had to offer.

He closed his eyes and let go of the rock.

* * *

Happy Birthday! Remember that my twisted muse really likes presents:o) 


	34. Searching

Greetings! I've had almost three weeks to stew over this chapter, and the more I read it, the more I hated it. Alas, this is the best I could come up with. I hope it's not too horrible and error filled.

**Reviews: **I replied to signed reviews using the site's review feature. I replied to unsigned/anonymous reviews on my web site. You can find a link on my bio.

**Disclaimer: **I had one at the beginning of the story, but here it is again, just in case: the characters do not belong to me. If they did, the anime wouldn't have ended the way it did. I'm just happy to be able to play in the sandbox for a little while (or in the case of this story, a long while).

**Summary of last chapter: **Mr. Moto decides to help Kaiba through his ordeal, while Kaiba is surprised to wake up at the Moto's. Kaiba then decides to repay Mr. Moto by taking him to his grandson, while Yugi is left literally hanging off a cliff.

Enjoy!

Posted 8/26/06

&&&&

**Part 34: Searching**

"Are you going to continue to stare at me?"

Joey felt his face heat up in embarrassment and he looked away from High Priest Seto. He forced himself to instead focus on the street the cab was driving on, and the people going about their business, but found his eyes drawn back to the high priest after only a few minutes. The man had turned away from Joey and was looking out of his own window. His face was calm and his whole body seemed relaxed and at ease. He radiated peacefulness, instead of the pent up anger that his look-alike seemed to carry around like one of his trench coats. It was that, more than anything that kept drawing Joey's attention to the man. The priest must have sensed Joey's eyes on him once again because he turned and raised a questioning eyebrow at Joey.

"It's just weird," Joey said. "You look exactly like that bastard Kaiba. You're also wearing my clothes, and I'm surprised Kaiba didn't rip them off of you when he first saw you."

"Yes, he did say something about the clothes," Seto said.

"When did you speak to him?" Ryou asked from where he sat between the priest and Joey.

Since all seven of them had decided to come along on the search for Yugi, they'd had to take two separate cars. Mr. Moto, Kaiba, his brother, and the pharaoh were in the car ahead of them, while Joey and Bakura had gotten to ride with the priest. Joey had been relieved not to have to be in the same car with Kaiba, but he wasn't sure that being in the car with his double was any better.

The priest inclined his head slightly towards Ryou, but his eyes did not leave Joey's. "I spoke to him briefly last night," he said, and it was apparent from his expression that he regretted bringing the subject up. "This situation is rather strange, don't you think?" the priest asked, gesturing to the passing scenery outside the car. "I sometimes wonder if I am not back in Egypt, safe in my bed, dreaming about all of this."

"Me too," Ryou muttered. "Unfortunately for us, this sort of stuff always happens."

"I can assure you, it's not a dream," Joey muttered, choosing to ignore the abrupt change of subject. "If it were, Yugi would not have been kidnapped and Mr. Moto wouldn't be playing nice with Kaiba."

Joey wasn't normally great at reading people, but he couldn't help but notice the anger that crossed the priest's face at his comment about Kaiba. It made him wonder why the high priest was so protective of the man. The priest didn't know Kaiba. As far as Joey knew, they'd just met, so why was the priest so protective of Kaiba? Did looking alike come with some sort of bond? Seeing anger on a face that so resembled Kaiba's was like old times, which triggered Joey's own anger. He forced it under control by reminding himself that it would be useless to yell at the man, because no matter how much he looked like Kaiba, he wasn't. He would not blame the priest for Kaiba's sins, no matter how tempting it was.

"You and Kaiba have a long history, do you not?" the priest asked. "Where does the animosity between you two come from?"

Joey opened his mouth and then realized that he didn't have a reply to the question, at least not one that he was willing to put into words. When he saw Kaiba, he got angry; that was all there was to it. Joey had never needed a reason for the anger, it just was. His presence seemed to have the same effect on Kaiba, and Joey doubted that the rich bastard had ever stopped to wonder why that was.

"They're rivals," Ryou supplied when it became apparent that Joey was not going to provide an answer.

Before Ryou could say anything more, the priest was shaking his head. Joey fought down his annoyance at the topic in general, and tried very hard not to glare at the priest.

"It's more than that," the priest finally said. "Your anger seems to exist simply because I happen to look like Seto Kaiba. If he were in this car instead of me, I have a feeling that you would not be having a conversation. That kind of anger doesn't just come from being rivals."

Joey's irritation continued to grow. The priest's tone, while not condescending, still sparked the anger Joey had snuffed earlier. What difference did it make anyway? If he wanted to be angry any time Kaiba was within shouting distance, it was his right to be angry.

"You two are a lot alike, you know."

Joey's eyes widened at the comment, because he had not been expecting that. They focused on the priest for a moment and he was surprised to see a somewhat amused expression, not unfriendly, where he'd normally see scorn and belittlement.

"Kaiba and I are not alike," Joey practically growled. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his seat. He resisted the urge to stick out his lower lip in a pout, knowing that it would do absolutely nothing for his image. "He's a rich, spoiled brat who enjoys looking down his nose at those of us who have to earn our living. He sits in his plush office and plays with his video games. What does he know of pain and suffering?"

Joey has turned away, but he still heard the sigh from the high priest.

"Have you bothered to really look at him, especially lately?"

Joey wanted to ignore the comment, but there was something in the priest's voice that compelled him to turn back around and stare into those familiar, and yet alien, blue eyes once again.

"You have both seen a lot more pain and violence in your short lifetimes than you have a right to have seen," the priest continued. "You see yourself in each other, which is why you find it a lot more comforting to react with the one emotion that has never failed you: anger. Next time, take a really good look at him Joey. Look beyond the façade and the indifference. You'll be surprised at what you see."

The priest turned away from him then and Joey turned to Ryou, who just shrugged. Joey sat back against the seat again and pondered what the priest had just said. How could Kaiba, with everything that he had going for him, know what it was like to be Joey? Moneybags always walked around as if he was better than anyone else, like nothing bothered him, like they should be happy because he honored them with his presence. What could Kaiba possibly know of sleepless nights because he was afraid that his father would come into the room and beat him, or worse? What did the rich bastard know about going hungry because there was no money to buy food? How could Kaiba know of longing for a sibling he couldn't visit because she was on the other side of town? It was ridiculous.

The car turned onto a road off the main street and they headed up a slight hill. They were in the foothills of the mountains that surrounded Domino, which was a part of town that Joey had never visited. He'd never had an occasion to, seeing as how only wealthy families could afford homes in this area. They moved further up hill, until they turned onto an even smaller road that eventually led to a house. It was no where near as big as the Kaiba mansion, but it was still impressive.

The car came to a stop and Joey immediately got out. Ryou exited behind him, while the priest used the door on the other side of the car. Everyone got out of the first car as well, and Mokuba came to pay the driver of the car Joey had just gotten out of.

"We'll call you when we need you again," the young Kaiba said as he handed the driver some bills. The driver counted the money, before giving Mokuba a big smile.

"Yes, sir," he said and then followed the other car as they left the property.

Joey headed for Yugi's grandfather, who was talking to Kaiba.

"This house has been empty for the past few years," the elder Kaiba, whose back was to Joey, was saying. "It was where Gozaburo came when he got fed up with the office. I never saw the need to get rid of it after he died."

"Why do you think he brought Yugi here?" Mr. Moto asked.

Kaiba shrugged. "This is a private residence in an out of the way area that is rarely visited. No one knows about it except for him and me, and he knows that I would have no reason to come here of my own volition. In addition, he couldn't take Yugi back to the mansion, because other people would see him there. The house is also a good distance from the main road, so Gozaburo wouldn't have to worry about Yugi escaping. Not that he would ever be given the chance."

Mr. Moto grimaced at the image of his grandson being locked inside a room or tied to a chair, and Joey grimaced with him. He almost told Kaiba to be a little more sensitive around Mr. Moto, but then discarded the idea. It wouldn't do any good with Kaiba anyway. The helplessness he'd felt since this whole situation started surfaced momentarily, until Joey locked it up again. He needed to be sharp to find Yugi, not weighted down with guilt or anger.

"How would Gozaburo know for certain that you wouldn't come here?" Mr. Moto asked.

Kaiba's jaw tightened. "That isn't important," he said in a tone that said that further questions on the matter would not be answered.

Mr. Moto looked like he wanted to ask something else, but decided against it.

"What makes you think that Gozaburo isn't already here?" Joey asked.

Kaiba fixed Joey with a steely gaze. "I have him bugged, you moron. When I last checked, the tracker showed that he was at Kaiba Corp.," he answered. "Besides, that's none of your concern."

There was something about Kaiba's stare that made the priest's words from earlier replay in his mind and Joey found himself doing as the priest asked. He shoved his instinctive anger aside and took the time to take a really good look at Kaiba. The black shirt he was wearing only served to accentuate the paleness of his face, along with the dark circles under his eyes. Without the coat, Joey could also see how the clothes seemed to hang on Kaiba's body, as if they were a couple of sizes too big. Worse than that, were the eyes. Kaiba was looking at him, and yet, he really wasn't. His normally expressive blue eyes were dull and seemed to only be half focused on what was going on around him and the other half focused on something only he could see. Despite the biting sarcasm and cruel words that were typical of Kaiba, the emotions that normally accompanied them were missing. It was as if Kaiba was saying what he'd normally say only for show. Even the anger that usually enveloped the teenager like a second skin was missing. Instead, Kaiba just looked tired.

Joey's eyes shifted away from Kaiba down to Mr. Moto, who was looking intently at Joey. Joey could see in his eyes that Mr. Moto knew why Kaiba was not himself. It had to be the reason why he'd let Kaiba stay at the house, even though Kaiba had been responsible for Yugi's kidnapping. Mr. Moto was a kind, caring man to begin with, but even he knew when to draw the line. Having his grandson kidnapped was surely crossing that line, but Mr. Moto had sheltered not just one Kaiba, but both of them. The reason Kaiba was not himself had to be severe enough to bring out Mr. Moto's paternal instincts towards the abrasive teenager, which sent a chill down Joey's spine.

For the first time, Joey felt something other than anger for Kaiba: he felt concern. His eyes shifted back to Kaiba, whose own eyes had narrowed in suspicion at Joey's continued scrutiny. Joey trusted Mr. Moto, and if the man wanted whatever happened to be kept secret, Joey would respect that.

"What are you looking at, Moneybags?" Joey said as he walked past them and headed towards the front of the house. "Stop standing there like an idiot and take us to Yugi."

He didn't look at Kaiba, because he was afraid that Kaiba would realize that he knew something was up. If it were him, Joey would definitely want to keep whatever it was to himself. He would give Kaiba that much, at least for now.

When Kaiba reached the front door, he'd pulled out a small key. He unlocked the door and walked inside. Joey followed, and he could hear the rest of their crew following behind him. The house was dusty and looked like it hadn't been touched in years. It covered every conceivable surface, from the furniture and the paintings on the wall, to the marble floor. Joey kneeled beside the entry way and leaned down to get a better look.

"Look, there are footprints here."

The rest of them, except Kaiba and Mokuba, came closer to also take a look.

"There is only one set," Mr. Moto commented, dread clear in his voice. "Yugi was carried inside."

"I suggest we follow them to see where they lead. It will save us time," Kaiba said and without waiting for anyone else, led the way deeper into the house.

&&&&

_The backhand sent him flying into the bookcase, which dislodged many of the books from their places. The books fell on him, adding bruises to already bruised skin, and he could already feel something warm dribbling down his chin. He didn't move, choosing instead to remain where he'd landed with the books on top of him. He couldn't say that he was shocked at the mistreatment. His adoptive father had made sure to beat the shock out of him already, but the first blow always left him reeling. _

"_You are worthless."_

_A hand reached down and took him by the shoulder, the strong fingers digging in such a way that the arm was useless. His adoptive father was good at that: he knew the pressure points of the body very well and used them to his advantage when he wanted. He was lifted enough so that the tips of his polished shoes were the only things touching the floor. _

"_I told you to have this finished."_

_He was dragged towards the drafting table set up at the other end of the room and then shoved into it, so that the edge cut into his lower back, momentarily making him lose feeling in his legs. He collapsed to the floor again, only to be dragged back up by the same shoulder and bent over the table so that his face was almost touching the blueprints. Blood dripped from the cut on his lip and splashed on the paper. _

"_What else do I have to do to get through to you, Seto, or are you challenging my authority by deliberately not doing as I asked?"_

_When he did not reply, his adoptive father threw him aside and then proceeded to shred the blueprints, throwing the pieces around the room like confetti. A week's worth of work was being spread on the floor like trash, but he remained quiet. Any sound of indignation or protest that he could make would be rewarded with another blow. He had learned that lesson quickly and had learned it well early on._

_By the age of 10, he'd learned that life was unjust and that the people that were supposed to love and cherish you kept you around only long enough to take what they wanted, and then dropped you off at the front gates of the nearest institution for someone else to bother with you. He'd learned how to be a brother and a father long before his time. He'd learned that love was a double edged sword that could destroy him if he let it. Even through all of those lessons, he had still felt like a human being, with emotions and desires, hopes and dreams. The few months he'd spent under his adoptive father's guardianship had made him realize that those emotions, hopes, and dreams were an extravagance that he could not afford. A smile, a cry of pain, or a tear would be as damning as any word of challenge, so he had forgotten how to feel. _

"_You will redesign this, Seto, and this time it will be to my specifications. I will return in 24 hours and I expect this to be finished."_

_The man was almost out of the room when he stopped._

"_I thought that this place, away from distractions, and your whiny brother, would better help you to concentrate," his adoptive father said. "I was wrong." _

_The man stepped through the threshold and slammed the door behind him. He then secured the padlock on the door and gave it an experimental tug to make sure that it would not open. _

"_24 hours of solitude, with no food or water should demonstrate to you how serious I am."_

_Only when he couldn't hear his adoptive father's footsteps did he get up. He smoothed his clothing, his hair, and wiped the blood from his chin with his sleeve. He stepped on the remains of his work as he walked back to the drafting table, but he shrugged it off. He pulled out a new sheet of blueprint paper and smoothed it over the table. When he picked up his pencil, he noticed that his hands shook, but he shrugged that off, too, and began to draw once again. _

_If, every now and then, small drops of water hit the paper and distorted his carefully placed lines, the boy wrote it off as water coming in from the open window that he could not reach. He had 24 hours to replicate what had taken him a week to finish. He had no time to waste on extravagances._

&&&&_  
_

"Hey Kaiba, do you plan on standing there all day?"

A hand on his shoulder pulled him out of the memory. He grabbed the hand and pushed the person it belonged to away and into the nearest wall.

"Don't touch me."

"You bastard," Joey yelled from where he'd been shoved into the wall. "Why is it always violence with you, Kaiba? Is that all you know?"

The white door in front of him, complete with locked padlock, had momentarily taken him down memory lane and Wheeler's less than friendly touch had set off his defenses. He had not meant to shove the blonde into the wall, but he was not going to apologize for it either.

"Don't tell me you're scared of whatever is in that room," Wheeler taunted.

Kaiba's nails cut into the skin of his palm as he stared Wheeler down. The teenager was coiled and ready to strike, and Kaiba decided to see if the dog's bite was as big as his bark.

"Give me your best shot, mutt," Kaiba snarled.

Wheeler, as expected, pushed off the wall with his fist ready to strike. Kaiba fisted his right hand and drew it back, looking for the perfect spot on Wheeler to hit. Before either could make contact, the high priest had Wheeler by the collar and was holding him off the ground, while the pharaoh had stepped in front of Kaiba and blocked his way. Kaiba considered striking anyway, but the small hand that wrapped around his fist persuaded him otherwise.

"Let me go, damn it!" Wheeler demanded as he flailed in the priest's hold.

The pharaoh trained his red eyes on Kaiba, daring him to do anything. If Mokuba hadn't wrapped his hand around Kaiba's fist, he would have hit the pharaoh for getting in the way.

"This is no time to fight each other, kids," Mr. Moto said.

Kaiba immediately opened his mouth to protest that he was not a child, but one stern look from Mr. Moto caused him to close it with a snap.

"We're here for Yugi, not to waste time. Now Kaiba, do you have a key to the lock?" the elder man asked.

An unintelligent 'huh' almost escaped Kaiba's mouth at the question, but he wisely held it back. He turned to regard the door one more time. He'd never been on this side of the locked door, so he didn't know what key would open the lock. It didn't matter, though. They could always break it down.

Wheeler stepped in front of Kaiba and knocked on the door.

"Yugi, are you in there?"

He waited a moment, but there was no reply.

"Yugi, can you hear us?"

Again, there was only silence.

"Screw this," Joey muttered and kicked the door, which didn't budge. He kicked it again with the same results. "A little help here?" he asked those around him, but no one made a move to help him.

Kaiba sighed. They could waste time and go look for something to break the door down with, but he didn't want to take a chance with Gozaburo coming back. As much as he loathed admitting it, the mutt had a good idea.

"You might want to get a little further from the door and gain momentum, idiot," he said and demonstrated by backing up as far as the hallway would allow, and then rushed at the door. It buckled a little bit, but did not give.

Wheeler, proving that he was a bit smarter than he looked, followed the example. After a few more tries, the knob splintered and broke off, allowing them to open the door. Wheeler went in first and everyone else followed behind him, except for Kaiba. He stayed behind a little longer, uncertainty keeping his legs rooted to the spot. Mokuba stayed with his brother and spoke when everyone else was inside the room.

"It's Gozaburo, isn't it?" Mokuba whispered. "He used to lock you in there?"

Kaiba resisted the urge to shake his head in denial. Mokuba had never been brought to this place, and for that Kaiba was grateful. His brother was perceptive, had always been, and deserved the truth. He didn't want to get into it within hearing range of the idiots in the room, however, so Kaiba gave his brother an affirmative nod. He turned in time to see a look of sadness cross his brother's eyes, before his small hand gently took his and squeezed it once. Kaiba returned the squeeze, before stepping into the room.

The room was mostly the same, except for a few details. It had been rearranged and the drafting table had been removed. Everything else still seemed as unused and impersonal as it had when he'd been the room's occupant all of those years ago. Kaiba looked around one more time, to make sure that he hadn't missed what he was looking for upon first inspection. The room was not currently occupied. He didn't have to wonder about what had happened to the person that had been locked inside for very long. The window at the other end of the room was broken and shards lay everywhere in the vicinity of it. Yugi had gotten creative with the chairs and books in the room and had let himself out.

"He got out," Wheeler said as he joined Mr. Moto and Bakura who were examining the pieces of glass on the floor.

Kaiba resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the statement of the obvious. "There is nowhere to go," Kaiba said instead. "Woods surround this property on three sides and the side not surrounded is the side we took to get here. If Yugi had taken that route, we would have seen him on the way here."

"I wonder how long ago he escaped," Mr. Moto said as he picked up a piece of glass. There was something brown on the edge of it, and it didn't take Kaiba much time to realize that it was blood. "He's hurt."

Kaiba was surprised that Yugi had made it up to the window, much less broken it and gotten out. He could remain quiet and let the others hope that Yugi had made it out with no difficulties, but that wasn't the way he worked. Besides, Mr. Moto deserved the truth.

"That window leads to the roof, which is three stories above ground," Kaiba said, well familiar with the layout because he'd done the same thing Yugi had done and had ended up in the hospital from a broken collar bone when he'd fallen off the roof. "There's no way to get off the roof without a ladder, and I doubt Gozaburo put one up there."

"Maybe he's still on the roof," Wheeler said and pulled himself up and through the window cursing as a piece of glass cut his arm. He also slipped as he stepped onto the roof.

"Watch out, Joey. We don't need anyone else getting hurt," Mr. Moto said.

"He's going to get himself killed," Kaiba muttered as the mutt stomped around the roof.

They heard Wheeler cursing as he slipped once again and then fell, but after a few minutes, the blond came back into the room. He was a little more careful as he let himself back inside.

"What side of the house does this room face?" Wheeler asked.

"West," Kaiba replied.

"There is a place on the edge of the roof where the trim is broken. I couldn't get close enough to look down, but I think Yugi might have gone off the roof at that place. We need to go look on the ground outside."

Mr. Moto's face paled, and he was the first one out of the room. Kaiba and Mokuba followed the older man down the stairs and out the front door, where he finally stopped.

"This way," Kaiba said and turned right.

He led them around the house until they reached a point that Wheeler thought was the right one.

"Look," the pharaoh, who had been surprisingly quiet since the trip began, said and pointed to a spot left of where Wheeler was standing.

The spot was not very big, and the dirt was not uniform. It was a neglected flowerbed that no longer had flowers planted on it, just the occasional weed. It was next to a sprinkler head, so at one point, that dirt had been wet.

"Yugi fell into this," the pharaoh commented as he kneeled beside the spot. "Look."

There was a depression in the middle of the flowerbed. There was nothing special about it, but there was a hand print beside it. Kaiba also noticed the footprints that led away from the flowerbed and into the woods.

"We need to split up and look for him in teams, so we don't waste any more time," Mr. Moto said. "Kaiba, how well do you know these woods?"

"I never came outside while I was here," Kaiba finally said. "I am not familiar with them at all. We do own the property all the way down to the river that flows through these mountains, so we have a lot of ground to cover."

Yami appeared beside Joey, who'd been carrying the Millennium Puzzle. He took a look around, as if sizing up the job they had in front of them. He'd also been remarkably quiet during the trip, and Kaiba wondered whether it was because Yugi was not around to anchor him to the world or if he was just worried and wanted to brood on his own.

"Joey, give Mr. Moto the puzzle and you go with Ryou. Mr. Moto and I will search in the direction of the footprints."

Joey did as asked, and Mr. Moto hung the puzzle around his neck.

The pharaoh stood. "Seto and I will go with Mr. Moto."

Kaiba flinched at the use of his given name, even if it wasn't meant for him.

"Mokuba and I will go down to the river. I doubt Yugi has made it that far, but we'll check just in case."

No one argued with the directions given and left to search their designated areas.

&&&&

Yugi was surrounded by chaos.

The water was painfully bright and moving moderately fast. The fall had caused him to sink deep into the water, but not deep enough to reach the bottom. His face was tilted back and he could see the rays of light playing on the surface of the water. The sight was almost beautiful. He continued to watch the surface as he sank, letting it get further and further away from him with each passing second. He knew that he would eventually begin to rise to the surface, but he doubted that his lungs would hold out until then and he had no desire to help himself along by swimming back up. The current chose to pick him up at that moment, and he was pushed along, bumping into submerged rocks and other obstructions as he went along.

He was surprised, and disappointed, that he'd survived the initial fall. It would have been so much easier if everything had just ended the moment he'd hit the water. Instead, he'd lost all feeling in his body and was being carried at the mercy of the current. His lungs burned for oxygen, but Yugi was confident that the burning would go away soon. The current carried him briefly to the surface, and his body instinctively gulped for air as soon as his head rose above the surface. He was immediately pulled back under to be towed along once again.

He wasn't panicked. Instead, he felt detached and oddly at peace. He wanted it to be over; he wanted to stop thinking, to stop being aware. The breath he'd taken when he surfaced was keeping him alive for a little while longer, but Yugi had no doubt that it wouldn't last for very long. If he resurfaced again, he was going to fight his instincts and not take any more breaths. Guilt rose up in him at the thought of his grandfather and his friends, who he was willingly leaving behind. It was for the best. They didn't need someone as unstable and volatile as him around anyway. After all, who would stop him if he got angry enough again, as angry as he'd been in Egypt? How many more people would die because he was weak? He couldn't bear the thought of harming those that he loved, so he was going to take himself out of the equation completely.

The burning in his lungs became unbearable and Yugi's vision began to blacken at the edges. After a few seconds, the blackness had grown so that was all that he saw. The feel of the water on his skin and the noise of the rushing water suddenly disappeared, and he was left in complete blackness. Had he finally died?

Suddenly, he was not in the water anymore. He wasn't even wet. Instead, he was lying on the sofa in his living room, watching a Duel Monsters tournament. His head was on someone's lap. He was underneath the quilt that his mother had made for him when he was five that still smelled faintly of her. He felt warm, comfortable, and secure. A hand absently ran over his hair, smoothing down the wild locks.

"What a move!" his grandfather exclaimed as a Summoned Skull was destroyed by Raigeki on television. The new regional Duel Monsters champion had just been crowned. "No wonder the kid is at the top."

Yugi was tempted to snuggle into the couch, close his eyes and pretend that he hadn't just been drowning. His grandfather's hand continued to stroke his hair, which always lulled him to sleep. The warmth of the quilt, the safety of his home, and the love of his grandfather made his heart hurt and his eyes began to fill with tears. He fought them off, but not before his grandfather had noticed them.

"Why do you blame yourself, Yugi?" the elder man asked.

Yugi had no doubt as to what his grandfather was referring to. The man turned Yugi's head so that they were facing each other.

"You did what you had to do to save a friend, why do you blame yourself?"

Yugi sat up and moved to the other side of the couch. He wrapped himself in his quilt, but he noticed that he was now cold and shivering.

"They're dead, it doesn't matter why I did it, Grandpa," Yugi said, his voice rough with emotion, even though he had yet to shed a tear.

"It does matter, my boy," the elder Moto said. "You saved your friend, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't," Yugi insisted. "He's alive, but I didn't save him. He was still hurt."

His grandfather smiled that wide, carefree smile that he used only when Yugi was around. "It may take him a while to piece himself back together, but you gave him the opportunity to do it. If you hadn't killed those men, what would have happened to your friend?"

Yugi's mind flashed back to what happened in the desert, to Kaiba's screams and all of the blood on the sand.

"They would have killed him," Yugi whispered. "They wanted to kill him."

"Then I see no bad result from your actions, Yugi. You are alive and so is your friend. What happened to secure those results doesn't matter."

"It matters to me!" Yugi said. "I killed them, Grandpa. Nothing I can do will ever make up for that."

His grandfather reached over to him and brought Yugi closer.

"You are a kind hearted young man, Yugi. You love unconditionally, and you feel for everyone. Turn the compassion that you freely give to others and give it to yourself this time. Give yourself the forgiveness that you readily give to everyone else. I have no doubt that those who love you would do the same."

His grandfather and the living room began to fade and were replaced by the roaring water. The feeling had returned to his body and he felt heavy, with every limb in agonizing pain. He was still being carried by the current, but this time, it was carrying him towards the surface. As his head momentarily breached the surface, Yugi greedily pulled air into his lungs. He then felt a sharp tug, which pulled his arms above his head. Realizing that the coat he was wearing had gotten caught in something, Yugi attempted to slip his arms out it. The current chose that moment to drag him back under. He'd been in the process of taking a breath, so water rushed into his lungs and he began to spasm. Yugi fought to get back to the surface with everything he had left. He didn't want to die anymore, he wanted to get out of the river and make it back to his family and his friends.

The spasms worsened until he began to see dark spots. Yugi could see the surface of the water, but his arms were pinned above him and he could not get free. His lungs screamed for air, but he could not move. The dark spots began to grow, until all he could see was black. The roaring of the water and the cold dimmed until Yugi no longer felt anything.

&&&&

Every step he took felt as if a nail was being driven into his heart.

Solomon Moto clutched the Millennium Puzzle that he'd hung around his neck because he didn't trust his hands not to shake if he let them fall to his sides. Birds and other wildlife added the soundtrack to their walk, and Solomon couldn't help but wonder what kind of wildlife would hang around these woods at night, waiting for unsuspecting prey to enter their domain.

His grandson was too young to die. Solomon could not imagine what his life would be like without Yugi. Yugi had lived with him most of his life, and Solomon could not picture the house without Yugi's things scattered everywhere or the shop without the constant throng of admirers that hung around to catch a glimpse of the dueling champion. Solomon had already lost so much of his family. He didn't want to lose his grandson as well.

He shook his head to push the negative thoughts out of his mind. Yugi was very smart and knew how to take care of himself. He'd probably come out here and found a quiet and out of the way place to spend the night and was probably now searching for a way out. They had four other people looking for him, so someone was bound to come across Yugi.

"How are you doing, Mr. Moto?"

He'd been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed when Yami had appeared beside him, which caused Solomon to almost jump at the question.

"We have not found anything," Yami said. "Have you had any luck?"

"I haven't seen anything more significant than trampled grass, but that could have been done by anything," Solomon replied. "I'm afraid to think about what Yugi had to spend the night out here with."

"Hopefully he found a place to hide."

"Yes, I hope so too," Solomon replied. "He knows how to take care of himself."

Yami nodded his agreement, but there was something in the spirit's face that alarmed Solomon.

"What is it?" he asked.

The spirit remained quiet for a long moment, apparently considering what, or how much, he wanted to say. The longer the silence stretched, the more the elder Moto dreaded what was coming.

"I can't feel him," Yami finally said. "This usually happens when Yugi is away from the puzzle for an extended period of time, and does not necessarily mean that Yugi is no longer with us."

"No, it doesn't," Mr. Moto agreed. "We have a lot of good people out looking for Yugi. We're going to find him, right?"

Yami nodded. "He's going to be fine."

The determination in the spirit's voice bolstered his confidence and he smiled slightly.

"I'll return to my area," the spirit said and disappeared.

They'd been walking for half an hour when something directly ahead caught Solomon's attention. It was a line of small bushes, and the middle two looked as if they had been trampled. It was a sign that someone, or something, had gone through them. He made his way over to the area, while paying close attention to where he was stepping. The ground had gotten rockier the closer he'd gotten to the bushes and he didn't want to risk injury. He couldn't see anything beyond the bushes, but could faintly hear the sound of rushing water.

"Over here," he yelled to his companions as he inched closer to the bushes.

A scrap of burgundy fabric had caught on one of the bushes. It was a small piece, but the darkness of the fabric made it stand out. It fluttered in the wind and Solomon hoped that it wouldn't get dislodged before he got to it. .

"Careful, Mr. Moto," Yami said when the spirit reached him. "There's a drop directly in front of you. I think that the river that Kaiba mentioned is directly below."

Nodding his understanding, Solomon took the piece of fabric from the branch it had been caught in. It was heavier than he'd expected. He turned it over, and the reason for the extra weight immediately became apparent. Solomon turned to his companions and showed them what he'd found.

"Was Yugi wearing something like that?" the high priest asked as he eyed the fabric.

Solomon shook his head. "It's not Yugi's."

He flipped the piece of fabric around, so that they could see the device that had been pinned to it. It was a stylized KC, which Solomon and Yami both knew served as one of Kaiba's communication devices. He always had one pinned to his coat.

"Yugi was kidnapped from Kaiba Corporation, right?" Yami asked. "It is possible that he was wearing one of Kaiba's coats when he was taken."

Solomon nodded. "Kaiba isn't wearing a coat now," he said, as dread spread over his body. "He always wears one."

"Let's go down to the river and find Kaiba so we can be sure if Yugi was wearing his coat," the pharaoh said and led the way back the way they'd come.

They followed, and Solomon hoped that the piece of fabric in his hand didn't mean what he was afraid it meant. If Yugi had gone over the edge of that cliff and into the water, there was very little chance that he could have survived. The fall alone could have killed him. He closed his eyes and prayed to every deity he knew to look out for his grandson.

&&&&

"Brother, I know that you don't like to talk about Gozaburo, but…" Mokuba trailed off, uncertain of whether he should be bringing up their adoptive father at the moment.

They were walking along the bank of the river and had seen nothing so far to indicate that anyone had gotten here before them. The ground was undisturbed, save for a few footprints made by small animals. They could see no one ahead of them, and there was no place where anyone could hide or take shelter. Mokuba had been disappointed not to have found Yugi, even though his brother had said that he doubted the teenager had made it this far. The lull in activity had reminded Mokuba about his brother's reaction to the room Yugi had been locked in, which had prompted the question. The tension in his brother's shoulders, however, made him rethink his strategy.

"Go on," Seto said.

"Why did Gozaburo bring you here?" Mokuba finally asked.

Seto was quiet for a few minutes, and Mokuba noticed how his hands clenched into fists. He was about to apologize for butting in when his brother replied.

"Training," he said. "Gozaburo brought me here to train."

"Train you in what?"

Seto took his time to reply. "He liked to play mind games, Mokuba, and he could play them here without anyone interfering."

His brother paused for a moment, which Mokuba took to be the end of the conversation. He was surprised when Seto continued to speak.

"At the mansion, he had the staff to keep up appearances for. Here, there was all of this land away from prying eyes. He could do what he wanted and no one would be the wiser, except him and me."

"You said you never came outside," Mokuba remarked.

"I lied," Seto countered. "I never became very familiar with the woods, because I was mostly out at night, but I spent plenty of time in them. This was the best survival training ground our adoptive father had, and he used it to his advantage."

Not for the first time, Mokuba thought of how different his brother would be if they'd never met Gozaburo Kaiba. His memories of his childhood were not very clear, but he could recall that even back then, his brother already had that haunted look in his eyes. The look had gotten worse, however, once they'd been adopted by Gozaburo.

One of the few and very clear memories Mokuba had was of the first time Gozaburo had brought his brother to this house. Mokuba hadn't come with them, but he remembered how changed his brother had been when he'd gotten back. The visit had occurred only a few months after they'd been officially adopted by Gozaburo and had lasted two weeks. Mokuba had never been away from his brother before, so those two weeks had seemed like a lifetime. He'd been so excited when the butler had told him that Gozaburo and Seto were coming back, but once he'd gotten a good look at his brother, he'd almost not recognized him.

The thing that had stood out the most, and that Mokuba could still see in his brother even now, was the mask. Up until then, Seto had still smiled and talked about what they were going to do when they grew up. The boy that had walked into the house that day was withdrawn and indifferent to what went on around him. As Mokuba rushed down the stairs, Seto had looked up at him with a stare so empty that it had sent chills down Mokuba's spine. When Mokuba had snuck into Seto's room that night to talk to him, he'd been surprised to see bruises and cuts on his brother's back as he was changing. He'd been worried about his brother so much that he'd forgotten he was supposed to be hiding, so when he'd asked Seto who he'd gotten into a fight with, his brother had ordered him out of the room. Mokuba had been hurt, until Seto had come to his room later to apologize. Even though Seto was being nice to him again, Mokuba could still tell that his brother wasn't the same anymore.

"You're too quiet back there," his brother said, which dragged Mokuba out of his musings. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

Mokuba debated whether or not to continue his line of questioning, but then decided that he wouldn't get a better chance.

"When Gozaburo died and you inherited everything, why didn't you get rid of this place? It doesn't have good memories for you, so why not sell it?"

Seto pondered the question for a moment. When he had his answer, he turned so that Mokuba could see his face.

"It's a reminder of how we got to be where we are, Mokuba. I never want to forget the price we paid."

Mokuba swallowed the lump in his throat at the look in his brother's eyes. They hadn't paid the price for what they had; Seto had paid for it by himself. Instinctively, the younger Kaiba closed the distance between them and embraced his brother. This time, he did notice how his brother tensed at the touch. Mokuba released his brother quickly and decided not to bring it up They'd had enough reminiscing for one day.

"Brother, why did we come down here if the path Yugi took pointed somewhere else?"

Seto walked close to the edge of the water and looked down, as if he expected to find something in the water.

"There is a drop in the general vicinity of the path the footprints indicated," Seto replied. "If Yugi wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he could have fallen into the river."

Seto pointed to the tree line above them and Mokuba gasped at the distance from it to the ground. He paid special attention to a point that jutted out directly over the river.

"I didn't want to tell them that, not before checking myself. If we find nothing, they'll never have to know."

Mokuba nodded in understanding and began to pay more attention to the river. He'd taken a couple of steps when he noticed that something was floating in the water a few meters ahead of them. He wasn't sure what it was at first, except that it was big. His stomach lurched as he made out a hand peeking out from the surface of the water.

"Seto, look over there."

Mokuba had every intention of getting to whatever was in the water, but his brother's hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Stay here, Mokuba," Seto said as he jogged over to whatever it was.

Mokuba followed his brother despite the command and stopped dead in his tracks when he realized what he was looking at.

Burgundy cloth had wrapped around a growth on the edge of the river. It had ripped but not enough to lose what it had inadvertently anchored to the edge. Yugi was floating face up a mere half meter from the edge of the river. His arms had been pulled over his head by the coat so they couldn't see his face, but they could clearly see his hair and his bare feet sticking out of the water. Seto kneeled on the edge of the river, unhooked the coat from where it had been caught and pulled Yugi to shore. He gently pulled the younger man out of the water then laid him on the ground. Yugi's face was pale, and his lips were tinged with blue.

"Yugi," Mokuba whispered as tears filled his eyes.

His brother's face was completely unguarded, and Mokuba could see shock, as well as guilt, battle with each other for dominance. One of Seto's hands rested on Yugi's chest, while the other rested at his throat, where Seto was feeling for a pulse. He then leaned down so that his cheek was right next to Yugi's nose. When Seto straightened up again, guilt had settled on his face.

"He wouldn't be here if it weren't for me," his brother whispered. "He wouldn't be dead if not for me."

Mokuba felt as if he'd stuck his finger in an electric socket. He had fallen to his knees before he realized he'd moved.

"No. Yugi isn't dead. He can't be dead."

Mokuba looked at Yugi's pale, scratched, and bruised face, and wanted so desperately to think that Yugi was only sleeping.

"We don't know how long he's been here, Mokuba. We don't know how long he hasn't been breathing."

"We have to do something, Seto," Mokuba said. "We both know CPR. We can at least try."

Seto nodded and fought to regain his composure. He positioned himself on one side of Yugi and then ripped what was left of the shirt so that Yugi's chest was bared, while Mokuba positioned himself next to Yugi's head.

"I'll do the chest compressions while you breathe for him."

Mokuba nodded and tilted Yugi's head back.

'Please, Yugi, hang on,' Mokuba silently pleaded as he and his brother got to work.

&&&&

Just keep in mind that if you decide to mob me and harm me in any way, you won't get the rest of the story. :o) In the mean time, I'm going to go finish that chapter of Last Goodbye I've been working on for the past few months. See you all next time!


	35. Actions Speak Louder

Greetings!

My apologies for the delay, but I've been updating all of my stories this time. I have three in total that I'm working on: this one and _No Kinen Ni_ in the Yu-Gi-Oh fandom and _Just One Chance_ in the Naruto fandom. The good news is that my YGO stories are almost complete. Intruders has 4 chapters left, while NKN has 5, I think. The torture of waiting for updates shall end soon!

**Reviews**: I've replied to signed reviews through the reply feature. There were some issues with it a little while ago, so I hope that everyone got their replies. I am not at home, so I don't have access to my website files to reply to anonymous reviews. Thank you, however, for taking the time to leave me a review.

**Warnings**: Not much, just a couple of bad words and mentions of what happened to Kaiba.

**Thank you**: Special thanks go to Nenya85 for taking a look at the chapter ahead of time and making corrections. This chapter is much better because of it, but any mistakes that remain are entirely my own.

Thank you again for your ongoing support and I hope that you all enjoy the chapter! I don't say this enough, but I really do enjoy hearing from you, so don't be afraid to leave a review. I won't bite, I promise.

&&&&

**Chapter 35: Actions Speak Louder… **

Kaiba wasn't sure how much time had passed since he and Mokuba had begun to work on Yugi, but it felt like hours. Their surroundings had faded, until the only things Kaiba was aware of were the sound of Mokuba's breath and the sound of his own voice as he counted the number of compressions.

Mokuba had been very composed through it all and had worked diligently, breathing for Yugi and softly urging him to breathe on his own. Kaiba couldn't remember another time when Mokuba had been so focused, so determined, and it spoke volumes about just what value Mokuba placed on Yugi's friendship, and his life.

Kaiba was suddenly pulled back to the last place he wanted to remember: Egypt. Yugi had been a witness to Kaiba's degradation and humiliation, and yet had not turned away. In that gentle way of his, Yugi had reminded Kaiba that he was not alone and he did not have to deal with everything by himself. He'd chosen to do so regardless, as was his way, but it had been somewhat comforting to know that he had an ally in Yugi if he so desired.

"Come on, Yugi," Kaiba found himself whispering, "show us that you still have that unbridled spirit."

As Mokuba's head rose so that he could take another breath, Yugi coughed. That one cough was followed by another, until Yugi was choking on the water he'd swallowed while in the river. Kaiba quickly put his arm underneath the teen and moved him so that he was on his side with his head down. He patted Yugi's back gently, encouraging him to spit out all of the water he swallowed. After five minutes of coughing, throwing up water, and wheezing, Yugi finally calmed down.

"You're okay," Mokuba said. "How do you feel?"

At the sound of Mokuba's voice, Yugi lifted his head and gave Mokuba a small nod. He was still breathing heavily, but he was breathing. Yugi then turned to Kaiba and with his eyes seemed to be asking if Kaiba was okay.

"You're the one that stopped breathing," Kaiba said, his voice rough, but not from anger. "You should be worried about yourself."

Yugi shrugged and the motion caused him to wince.

"What happened?" Yugi asked, his voice raspy and barely audible. He continued to cough on and off, which made Kaiba wonder just how long he'd been in the water.

"Don't you remember?" Kaiba asked.

Yugi's eyes lost their focus for a moment, before he shivered. Kaiba, realizing that Yugi must be freezing, looked around for something he could give Yugi to cover up. Mokuba, guessing what Kaiba had been looking for, took off his jacket and put in around Yugi's shoulders. The move startled Yugi back into awareness, and he took the jacket and wrapped it securely around himself.

"Thanks," he said to Mokuba.

He was thoughtful for a few more minutes, before turning to Kaiba once again.

"I remember Gozaburo," Yugi said, and both Mokuba and Kaiba had to lean in to hear him. "I left the house and slept in a cave. I…" he trailed off and looked away, but not before Kaiba saw the look that Yugi had directed his way. Was that guilt he'd seen in Yugi's eyes?

"You what?" Mokuba prodded.

"I got turned around and fell off a cliff," Yugi finished.

"Are you hurt?" Kaiba asked.

He could see multiple bruises and cuts on Yugi's body, but he wouldn't be able to tell if there were any internal injuries.

"I don't know," Yugi said. "I feel numb."

Yugi looked as if he were about to pass out, and Kaiba was on the verge of suggesting that he lay down and rest, when Yugi spoke.

"I need to talk to you, Kaiba."

Kaiba didn't have to ask what Yugi needed to talk about, because he could see the seriousness in Yugi's eyes.

"Mokuba, can you go and find Mr. Moto and tell him that we've found Yugi and he's okay?"

Mokuba looked from one to the other, making no secret of the fact that he knew they were getting rid of him. He nodded to his brother and gave Yugi a quick, and light, hug.

"I'll bring them back," the boy said, and took off running.

Yugi and Kaiba sat in silence until they saw Mokuba begin to ascend the makeshift steps that led to the house above.

"I had a dream," Yugi suddenly said without looking at Kaiba. "When I was in the cave, I had a dream about what happened in Egypt."

Kaiba's hands clenched into fists and his heart began to beat faster. He fought the panic that was forcing its way up and was only partially successful.

"I'm sorry, Kaiba."

Kaiba's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What are you sorry for?" he asked.

"I should have killed the men sooner," Yugi replied. "Then not as many would have…"

Yugi stopped and raised his head. The sorrow Kaiba saw in Yugi's eyes mirrored what he'd seen in Mr. Moto's eyes the night before, without any of the pity or judgment he'd expected.

"In my dream, you asked me to kill you too."

The sentence struck Kaiba like a lightning bolt, because it hit too close to the truth. He remained silent, however. He would let Yugi have his say, first.

"I don't want you to die," Yugi continued as tears ran down his cheeks. "I don't want you to finish what they started. I don't want you to believe what they said to you, Kaiba. If anyone is at fault, it's them, not you. You did nothing wrong."

Yugi sobbed softly, but did not look away. The teenager's suffering caused Kaiba's own throat to constrict, and he could feel his eyes burning with unshed tears.

"You don't have to say anything around me, Kaiba. I was there, I know what happened. Please don't shut me out. You don't ever have to pretend to be okay around me, so if the memories become overwhelming and you don't want to be alone, I'll be here. It's not much, but it's all I can offer."

Kaiba swallowed the lump in his throat and blinked away the traitorous tears.

"I told your grandfather."

Yugi's eyes widened slightly. Kaiba could see the questions in his eyes and decided to spare him having to ask them.

"I went to your house to say goodbye to my brother, but your grandfather found me before I could leave," Kaiba said, not relinquishing contact with Yugi's eyes. "I lost it and told him what had happened."

Kaiba paused to blink back more tears, but still refused to look away. Yugi was offering him a place to just be, good or bad, but if Yugi couldn't handle a few tears or a few ragged emotions, he wasn't going to be able to handle anything else. To his credit, Yugi held eye contact for as long as Kaiba demanded it without flinching or shifting nervously.

"He sat with me as I cried. When I was finished, he took me inside and put me to bed, and then fed me in the morning."

A small smile briefly touched Yugi's face, before a wince replaced it.

"Grandpa does that," Yugi finally said. "He takes care of us when we can't take care of ourselves."

Kaiba acknowledged the statement with a small nod. "You two are very much alike," he said.

"I'm very proud of that fact," Yugi replied.

Both young men took a deep breath, and then released it. Yugi wiped his cheeks and Kaiba cleared his throat.

"Are you still numb?" Kaiba finally asked.

Yugi shook his head. "I'm starting to hurt all over," he said. "My stomach feels heavy."

"There's probably still some water in your stomach," Kaiba replied. "We should go meet everyone so that we can take you to the hospital. You'll risk pneumonia if we don't."

Yugi nodded his agreement. He attempted to stand, but lost his footing as soon as his right foot touched the ground. He hissed as he landed roughly on his side and only then did Kaiba notice the bruises and scratches along Yugi's neck and shoulder.

"You fell off the roof, didn't you?"

Yugi almost looked sheepish when he nodded.

"You were lucky," Kaiba added. "I broke my collar bone when I did it."

Without being asked, Kaiba scooped Yugi up in his arms. Yugi protested and tried to get back down, until a glare from Kaiba silenced him.

"You're just going to slow us down if you try to walk on your own," Kaiba said. "The sooner we get you to the hospital, the better. Besides, Mokuba and I worked too hard to get you breathing again."

"Thank you, Kaiba."

Kaiba briskly followed the path his brother had taken to get back to the house.

"You're welcome, Yugi."

&&&&

"He's fine, Mr. Moto," Mokuba said as they all rushed towards the river. "He's a little beat up, but he'll be fine."

Solomon, not for the first time, wished that his old body would move faster. He wanted to see his grandson, especially since Mokuba had told him that they'd found him in the river, unconscious. The young Kaiba had been trying to pacify him ever since he'd found Solomon and his group a few minutes ago, but Solomon was having none of it.

"He may be fine, Mokuba, but the fact that he was found in a river after falling into it from a cliff is more than enough to make me want to lay my eyes on him, just to see for myself that he's okay."

The look Mokuba gave Solomon was one of such confusion that the elder Moto wondered if Mokuba himself had ever been on the receiving end of a parent's worry. Kaiba, who had been the boy's parental figure most of his life, probably wouldn't react the way Solomon had reacted.

They were saved further discussion when they saw Kaiba walking towards them with Yugi in his arms. Solomon's heart immediately did a few flips, until Yugi's eyes met his and he smiled.

"Hi, Grandpa," Yugi said.

Solomon covered the remaining yards between them in record time and had his hands on Yugi's cheeks.

"You can't walk?" he asked, worried at the possibility of such severe damage.

"He can, but it would have delayed us," Kaiba answered. "This was the best alternative."

"I think I sprained my ankle when I fell off the roof," Yugi stated. "I wouldn't have made it all the way up here."

Solomon ran his hands over Yugi's scratched face, his shoulders, and his arms. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"Probably," Yugi answered. "I hurt all over."

Yami had appeared beside Solomon, who still had the puzzle. "Yugi, it is good to have you back."

The look they shared was strained, which didn't escape Solomon. As Solomon's eyes drifted to Kaiba, he noted the tension in Kaiba's own face, even as he avoided looking in Yami's direction. Neither said a word. They probably would have continued in silence if Joey had not broken it for them.

"You're lucky, Yugi," he said. "That was one hell of a fall."

Yugi and Kaiba shared a look, before Yugi addressed Joey.

"It all worked out," was all he said.

"High Priest, can't you heal Yugi like you did in Egypt?" Yami asked.

Solomon's eyebrows raised at yet another thing he didn't know about their trip to Egypt.

"I can not predict how my magic will react in this time," the High Priest stated. "I would rather not take the chance."

"Yugi needs to go to the hospital," Mokuba said. "He swallowed a lot of water and could risk pneumonia if he doesn't have a doctor look at him soon."

"Mokuba is right," Kaiba added.

The tone of voice the young man used made Solomon think that those two knew a lot more about what had happened with Yugi than they were letting on. He decided to let it go for the moment; he'd ask Kaiba about it later.

"Call the taxis back, Mokuba. We'll take him to the hospital ourselves."

Mokuba did as asked, and the group made their way back to the house. Kaiba led the way, with Mokuba and Solomon beside him. They were almost to the house when Kaiba suddenly stopped. Solomon turned to look at the young man and saw that Yugi had turned his face to look at him as well.

"Kaiba, what's wrong?" Yugi asked.

"I found Seto's little bug, that's what's wrong."

They heard the voice before the man that owned it made an appearance. When the man turned the corner to face them, the hair on the back of Solomon's neck stood on end. Gozaburo Kaiba was an imposing man. He was tall, hefty, and had an abrasive and confrontational aura around him. Solomon turned his head slightly and noticed that Yami had disappeared, as had the high priest and the pharaoh. Joey and Bakura had both stopped in their tracks and were glaring at the man. Mokuba Kaiba had taken a step closer to his brother. His hands were clenched into fists at his side, and even though his face was impassive, Solomon could see the fear that rested in his eyes. Seto Kaiba, on the other hand, had gone still. His face was completely devoid of emotion and his eyes were dull and empty. His fingers were white against the fabric that covered Yugi's shoulders, which was his only reaction to the elder Kaiba. Yugi stared at the man, and Solomon could tell that his grandson was also afraid.

"You back-stabbing, son of a bitch," Gozaburo addressed Kaiba. "First you try to kill me in my own home, and then you plant a tracking bug on me. Not only that, but you back out of a deal and come to that brat's rescue instead. You have no honor."

A few strides took him face to face with Kaiba, and before anyone could react, Gozaburo had backhanded him. Kaiba, unable to defend himself while he carried Yugi, stumbled with the force of the blow and would have fallen if Mokuba hadn't held on to him. Blood trickled down his chin and landed on Yugi's head.

"Hey!" Solomon said and moved to stand in front of Kaiba and Mokuba. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"This is not your concern, old man. Seto is my son. I get to decide how to punish him."

"I don't think so," Solomon said. "You lost all claim to him when you 'died', not that you deserved to have him in the first place."

"He would have rotted in that orphanage if not for me," Gozaburo pointed out.

Solomon was livid. Seto and Mokuba Kaiba were children. They didn't deserve to be yelled at, much less physically abused. Interacting with Gozaburo made Solomon wonder, not for the first time, what this man had done to Seto to turn him into the person he'd been when they'd first met. Solomon had a feeling that if he knew, he'd be tempted to cause Gozaburo's second death.

"Listen to you, you senile, old man," Gozaburo said. He used his full height to his advantage, towering over Solomon, but Solomon did not back down. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"I don't care who you are," Solomon replied. "They're my children now and if you want to get to them, you're going to have to go through me."

Gozaburo laughed. "That won't be a problem."

"Enough! This is my fight, Mr. Moto, you don't need to get involved," Kaiba said.

He put Yugi gently on the ground and then stepped in front of Solomon, but not before giving Solomon a respectful nod.

"I reneged on the deal we made," Kaiba said. "You are free to take whatever retribution you desire, but only against me."

"Brother," Mokuba said, but Kaiba held up a hand.

"Yugi needs medical attention," Kaiba continued. "I suggest you let them go so that he can get it. We'll deal with this by ourselves."

Gozaburo seemed to think it over, before shaking his head. "I still don't have what I want."

Kaiba turned his back to Gozaburo and fixed Solomon with a piercing glare.

"Mr. Moto, let me have the puzzle."

Solomon's eyes widened and he shook his head.

'Trust me' Kaiba mouthed so that only Solomon could understand. 'I won't let him have it.'

Solomon turned to Yugi, who was leaning against Mokuba. His grandson gave him a small, imperceptible, nod. Reluctantly, Solomon slipped the puzzle off of his neck and handed it to Kaiba.

Kaiba turned back to Gozaburo. "Do you remember those training sessions we used to have in the surrounding forest?" he asked.

Gozaburo's eyes narrowed, but he nodded.

"Let's have one of those sessions tonight, just you and me for old time's sake. The winner gets the puzzle."

"Brother," Mokuba said, louder this time. The panic in his voice made Solomon wonder what he knew about those training sessions.

"Be quiet, Mokuba!" Kaiba roared, but did not take his eyes off Gozaburo. "What's the matter, are you afraid that I learned too well from you?"

Two cars turned into the driveway and Solomon recognized them as the two taxis from earlier that day.

"Kaiba, you're not staying here with him by yourself," Solomon said to Kaiba's back.

"This doesn't concern you, Mr. Moto," Kaiba replied. "Gozaburo and I understand each other and this is the only way we can resolve this. Besides, you should be concerned about your grandson. He's the one that needs a doctor."

Solomon swallowed the lump in his throat at Kaiba's apparent dismissal. After yesterday, Solomon had hoped that Kaiba understood that he was now included in the list of people Solomon cared for and worried about.

"I'm worried about you too, Seto," Solomon said.

"You shouldn't be. I'm not a child anymore, Mr. Moto. I haven't been for a long time."

"How touching," Gozaburo said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "It looks like you've found yourself another father, Seto. I'd be hurt, if I cared about you at all."

Solomon clenched his jaw to keep himself from saying anything that would get Kaiba into a worse situation.

"What do you say, Gozaburo? Are you going to take me up on my suggestion?"

Gozaburo shrugged. "Why not? I'd love to see how soft you've gotten."

Kaiba put the puzzle around his neck and then turned to Solomon. "Take the taxi and then take Yugi to Tokyo University Hospital. They have several specialists there that deal with respiratory trauma, which is what Yugi needs."

Solomon wanted to say so much more, ask so much more, but Kaiba didn't give him a chance. Instead, he started walking towards the forest.

"I'll be waiting at the usual starting spot, Gozaburo. Come when you're ready."

Solomon stared after the young man, his heart breaking because he couldn't do anything about this, couldn't save Kaiba from his self-imposed punishment. He shook his head and turned towards his grandson, who was hobbling towards the nearest taxi. Joey lifted him up and carried him the rest of the way. Solomon stopped as he came up beside Gozaburo.

"If that young man is not at my house tomorrow morning, I will hunt you down and kill you, do you understand?"

Gozaburo laughed. "You better start planning your alibi now, old man, because I plan on prying that puzzle out of Seto's cold, dead fingers."

Gozaburo walked back into the house, and Solomon was left with a weight so heavy that it was hard to breathe. Mechanically, he walked to the taxi and got in. As they drove away, Solomon turned his head and stared at the forest that Kaiba had walked into. He prayed to every deity he knew to watch over Kaiba.

"He'll be fine, Grandpa," Yugi said. "Yami is with him. No matter how often those two fight or how angry they are at each other right now, Yami isn't going to let anything happen to him."

Solomon felt a little relief at Yugi's words, but that was quickly swallowed with worry for Yugi.

"Why does Kaiba think you need a respiratory specialist?" Solomon asked.

Yugi and Mokuba exchanged glances, before Yugi turned to his grandfather.

"Kaiba and Mokuba told me that I wasn't breathing when they found me. I think Kaiba just wants to make sure that I'm okay."

"What?" Solomon exclaimed, "You weren't breathing?"

"I'm okay now, Grandpa," Yugi said. "I'll be fine."

Solomon studied his grandson. The young man looked ready to drop at any moment and he moved stiffly. Solomon was also suddenly reminded of Kaiba's words from last night, and he resolved to have that conversation with Yugi as soon as he'd been looked at by a doctor. Solomon then turned his attention to his other charge.

"What do you know about these training sessions, Mokuba?"

Mokuba didn't look away from the window, but Solomon saw him stiffen at the question.

"Brother didn't tell me much, but he said that it was like survival training. He spent the night in the woods and tried to survive until morning."

Solomon clenched his jaw once again at the cold hearted cruelty that was Gozaburo Kaiba.

"Kaiba is going to be fine," Yugi insisted as he drifted off to sleep in the seat next to Solomon, "Yami is with him."

&&&&

Yugi was finally alone. He was in a warm, comfortable bed wearing warm, though slightly revealing, hospital clothes, and he had been given the most wonderful pain medication known to man. He had oxygen being given to him through a small hose attached to his nose and an IV dripping antibiotics into him. There was a cast on his right foot, which he'd fractured as a result of the fall from the roof. His arm was in a sling to prevent further damage to the shoulder, and he was patched up so much that he looked like a mummy. Thanks to the medication, he felt nothing but a nice, fuzzy feeling throughout his body, which was a drastic change from the pain he'd been in since he woke up with Mokuba's face inches from his own.

The thought of what the Kaiba brothers had managed to do was enough to sober him from his pain medication induced happiness. Neither brother had been very liberal with the details, but the position they'd been in when he'd woken up left no doubt that they were responsible for the fact that he was alive. He would be forever in their debt, especially after the stupid decision he'd made once he'd fallen into the river.

Shame ate at him. How could he have been so weak and so cowardly? How could he have ever thought that death was an appropriate solution? The guilt over the deaths he'd caused still ate at him, but having talked to Kaiba, even for that small amount of time, had lessened the burden a little. Kaiba was alive, and that was all that should matter.

He was prevented from going deeper into his morose thoughts by his grandfather's arrival. He looked so tired, and yet he still managed a brilliant smile when he realized that Yugi was looking at him.

"How are you feeling, Yugi? The doctor tells me that pneumonia shouldn't be a problem and you'll be just fine after a couple of days of rest."

"Can I rest at home? I want out of here," Yugi said.

His grandfather shook his head as he took a seat on the chair beside the bed.

"I'm afraid not, Yugi. You have been ordered on strict bed rest for the next three days, right here in this hospital room."

Yugi groaned, but snuggled down under the covers anyway.

"Yugi, we need to talk about a few things."

Yugi glanced at his grandfather, who was looking at the bed. Yugi's heart sped up at the image. It was a bad sign whenever his grandfather couldn't look him in the eye.

"I know what happened to Kaiba," the older man finally said.

"I know, Kaiba told me," Yugi replied.

His grandfather raised his head at that, surprise written all over his face.

"I was surprised to hear that he'd told you, but I'm glad," Yugi added. "It's a start."

"He said that you were there when it happened…" his grandfather trailed off and Yugi had to forcefully shove the memories into a corner of his mind before he was engulfed in them. "Were you… I mean, did they…"

Yugi bit his lip when he realized what his grandfather couldn't ask him. His eyes filled with tears as he remembered what Kaiba had looked like afterwards.

"They made me watch," Yugi answered, his voice breaking. "They thought he was someone else and they wanted to defile and humiliate him. There were so many of them…" Yugi trailed off as tears slid down his cheeks. "They didn't touch me like that."

"I'm glad," his grandfather said. "I was so afraid…"

They sat in silence for a long while. Yugi wrung his hands together, which caused his shoulder to hurt. He welcomed the pain, though, because it helped him think a little clearer.

"I asked them to stop, but they didn't listen," Yugi finally said. He took the hand that his grandfather had laid on his leg and squeezed it. "Grandpa, I wanted them to stop, but I was being held and I couldn't get to Kaiba. I don't know how, but I…"

Yugi trailed off and closed his eyes tightly. He had to tell his grandfather about what he'd done. If his grandfather couldn't forgive him then no one else would either. As if sensing his inner turmoil, his grandfather left the chair and sat on the bed instead. He wrapped one arm around Yugi and used the other hand to tilt Yugi's face up so that they were looking at each other.

"What happened, Yugi?"

Yugi opened his eyes to find that his grandfather's eyes were also filled with tears. Yugi leaned into the embrace and hoped that this wasn't the last time his grandfather would want to hug him.

"I killed them, Grandpa. I killed all of them."

Yugi's tears fell faster, but his grandfather didn't say anything. Yugi could see that the elder man was shocked at what he'd said. Yugi jerked his head away from his grandfather's grasp and hugged his knees to his chest.

"Kaiba was screaming and pleading with them to stop… so was I, but they wouldn't listen," Yugi said, knowing that if he didn't get everything out now, he wouldn't be able to say it again. "They told him to be quiet, that if he didn't stop screaming they'd slit his throat and continue with me. Kaiba's face was turned towards me, and our eyes met. He was in so much pain… He stopped fighting them, Grandpa. He went still and quiet, like they'd asked. He gave up, because they threatened me and I… I don't know how it happened. I passed out and when I came to, they were all dead."

Yugi buried his face in his knees and sobbed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he said, his voice muffled by his knees. "I didn't want them to die; I just wanted them to stop hurting Kaiba."

His grandfather wrapped both arms around him and hugged him tightly. He ran his hand up and down Yugi's back as he'd done many times in his life.

"You and Kaiba are both alive because of what you did, Yugi. That's all that matters," his grandfather finally said. "You wanted to save your friend and you did. Don't punish yourself for it. He doesn't and neither will I."

Relief flooded through Yugi and he let himself enjoy his grandfather's hug for a few moments, before untangling himself and wiping at his cheeks.

"You don't hate me?"

His grandfather shook his head and gave him a watery smile. "Is this why you asked me if I would still love you if you'd done something unspeakable?"

Yugi frowned, until he remembered the conversation he'd had with his grandfather, in his room, right after he had gotten back from Egypt. He nodded.

"Silly," his grandfather said as he ruffled Yugi's hair. "You're a kind, caring, and loyal person, Yugi. What you did was in self defense and you shouldn't beat yourself up over it."

Yugi doubted that he would ever be able to see the incident in such simple terms, but he was immensely relieved that his grandfather, at least, had accepted his actions and didn't condemn him for them.

"You've had quite a day, Yugi. Why don't you get some rest? I promise to wake you up if I hear anything about Kaiba, okay?"

Yugi nodded, realizing that it had become very hard to keep his eyes open. The medication must really be kicking in now. Yugi lay on his back, closed his eyes and tried to relax.

"I'll be here when you wake up, Yugi, I promise."

Yugi smiled and drifted off, knowing that his grandfather never broke his promises.

&&&&

He'd been standing next to Kaiba for a long time, but Kaiba had yet to acknowledge him. Yami had no doubt that Kaiba could see him, because he'd seen Kaiba's eyes dart in his direction on more than one occasion, but he'd refused to say anything. Instead, he'd sat down on a rock and stared off into space. Yami had waited for Kaiba to begin a conversation, but now realized the futility of it. Kaiba, under normal circumstances, was prone to idle chitchat. In this situation, he would be even less inclined.

"Fine, if you won't begin a conversation, I will," Yami finally said.

He sat on the rock beside Kaiba and gave the teenager his full attention. After a few moments, Kaiba turned to him.

"Go away and mind your own business," he said, his voice slightly slurred by his swollen cheek.

"I am unable to 'go away'," Yami replied. "You are wearing the Millennium Puzzle around your neck."

Kaiba glanced down at the item as if offended by its mere presence. He grabbed it, as if to take it off, but then changed his mind and let it fall against his chest.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to give it to Gozaburo," Kaiba said.

"I did not think that you would, Kaiba," Yami replied. "I do wonder, however, what your motives are for engaging Gozaburo in this little exercise."

"That is not your concern," he replied.

They enjoyed tense silence for a moment longer and Yami used the time to study Kaiba. Yami had disappeared when Gozaburo had shown up, but had not left the scene entirely. He had noted how Kaiba froze in the presence of his adoptive father. Yami had a feeling that it was more due to habit than to any actual fear on Kaiba's part. Still, it begged the question of the kind of conditioning the man had put Kaiba through to have that reaction so ingrained. He was also curious about this training session Kaiba and Gozaburo were going to engage in tonight. Knowing Kaiba as well as he did, Yami had no doubt that it would be dangerous.

"Stop staring at me."

Yami's attention returned to the present and he found Kaiba glaring at him. He returned the glare and waited for Kaiba to back down. He should have known better. If anything, Kaiba's aggressiveness raised another notch.

"I was thinking, not staring at you," Yami replied, but the excuse sounded absurd even to him.

"Don't you want to go back into the puzzle or something? You don't need to keep me company, you know."

"Maybe I want to keep you company," Yami said.

Kaiba chuckled humorlessly. "You're probably afraid I'm going to jump off a cliff and take the puzzle down with me," he said. "After all, the last time you saw me I was falling apart."

Yami didn't miss the bitterness in Kaiba's voice and had to admit that the thought of Kaiba harming himself had crossed his mind.

"I doubt you have to jump off a cliff to harm yourself, Kaiba. Isn't that what this little exercise with Gozaburo is all about?"

Kaiba gritted his teeth and Yami was almost sorry he'd said those words. Almost.

"If I had really wanted to kill myself, Yami, I would have already done it."

"What is tonight all about then? Do you deny that what you are doing is deadly? One of you will be dead tomorrow morning, Kaiba, I'm not naïve."

Kaiba sighed and the sound contained such weariness that it made Yami look at the young man once again. Kaiba's shoulders had relaxed and his face had lost a little of its cold mask.

"Gozaburo needs to die and I need to be the one to kill him," Kaiba finally said. "We began this game when I was ten years old and it has to end now, before more people get hurt."

Ten years old. Yami could not imagine a ten year old Kaiba going up against a man like Gozaburo. He had survived, though, which was a testament to the strength that Kaiba possessed, even as a much younger child. A strength that had led to the man he now was.

"Do you have a plan?"

Kaiba shook his head. "When we did this before, he'd just chase me. There were traps laid out on the grounds and the game was to avoid them and make it through the night. He didn't have time to set traps this time, but I have no doubt that he'll come up with something just as deadly."

Kaiba stopped talking and Yami stayed as still as he could, not wanting to break the moment and cause Kaiba to clam up.

"I'm not a child anymore; I'm not afraid of him," Kaiba added, though Yami was sure it was for his own benefit. "I'll lure him to my favorite spot and then get rid of him."

There was a flash of light beside them and when they were able to see again, Yami and Kaiba saw High Priest Seto.

"You will not be able to get rid of him," the priest said.

"Why not?" Kaiba asked.

The priest walked over to them and shrugged. "Have you tried to get rid of him before?"

Yami and Kaiba both pondered the question, until Yami spoke.

"As a matter of fact, there was a spell that backfired," Yami said. "It was one of your spells that I memorized while we were in Egypt. Do you remember that, Kaiba? Gozaburo was confined to your body and you were locked in your soul room with him…"

"… and your spell gave him a body of his own," Kaiba replied. "I remember. You said you'd get rid of him but you only made it worse."

Yami chose not to respond to the insult and stared at the high priest instead.

"That would be my fault," the priest said.

"What?" both Kaiba and Yami asked at the same time.

"Gozaburo is the resurrected soul of one of my priests, Kha," the high priest said. "He betrayed me and as punishment, I banished his soul to the shadow realm for all eternity. However, when I banished him, I made his soul indestructible. I did not wish for him to shorten his punishment. That is probably why the spell you attempted backfired, Pharaoh."

"So you're saying that only you can kill him?" Kaiba asked.

The priest shook his head. "I can not do it in this time, just as I could not heal Yugi's wounds," he said and turned to Kaiba. "He is your father, is he not?"

"Adoptive father," Kaiba replied.

"Your bond with your adoptive father is far stronger than mine is with my priest, so you stand a better chance of destroying the binding I placed on his soul," Seto said.

"How do I do that?" Kaiba asked. "How do I undo something you did millennia ago?"

The priest held out the Millennium Rod.

"You have to do it with this."

&&&&

Next up: it wouldn't be any fun if I told you, now would it? Stay tuned!


	36. Sins of the Father

Greetings! Here is the latest chapter in this epic tale. This has got to be one of the hardest chapters I've written in this story so far, and I'm somewhat anxious about how it turned out. The wonderful Nenya85 has already taken a peak, and thanks to her, this final version is much better than what I started off with. I was tempted to sit on the chapter for another couple of days and re-read it a few more times, but figured that it was way past time to post it. I completely re-wrote the second half of the chapter after it was edited, so any errors are entirely my own.

**Warnings**: Egypt flashbacks, blood, Gozaburo's bad language

**Reviews**: I've replied to all signed reviews through the review feature. I'm unfortunately not at home, so I don't have access to my webpage files to reply to unsigned reviews. I do appreciate them! Thanks for the support guys; the story is finally coming to an end.

Posted: 2/12/07

Enjoy!

&&&&

**Chapter 36: Sins of the Father**

Nightfall was fast approaching, and Gozaburo found himself looking forward to the 'game' ahead. While this particular outing hadn't been his idea, he could still make it work to his advantage.

Seto's betrayal hadn't surprised him, not after the betrayal that had cost Gozaburo his life. Gozaburo would have been a fool to believe that this older, colder Seto would have done anything differently and had acted accordingly. Seto's proposal, however, had rendered his own planning unnecessary. Gozaburo no longer had to lure Seto into giving up his life, because the boy had just handed himself over with little effort on Gozaburo's part.

Gozaburo didn't want Seto dead. Instead, Gozaburo wanted Seto's mind destroyed and his body alive so that he could use it as a container for his own mind. He could still remember how young and energetic he'd felt during the short time he'd inhabited Seto's body, and he wanted that feeling again. Besides, there could not be two Kaiba Corporation CEOs in a world that knew of only one. Removing Seto from the equation would ensure that Gozaburo could continue to run his company, his home, and his possessions without challenge. Inhabiting Seto's body would ensure that no one would ever know that anything had changed.

This desire to control Seto's body was why he sought the Millennium Puzzle. Only a Millennium Item like the puzzle contained enough dark magic to fuel the process of destroying one mind and transferring another. Although the puzzle itself couldn't grant him the body, the puzzle, when combined with a couple of spells he'd found in the Egyptian book, would do the trick.

Acquiring the body, even with this opportunity Seto had given him, was not going to be easy. Seto was a strong young man who would not be defeated quickly. Seto's mind was agile and sharp, and even though Gozaburo had found it easy to manipulate, he had yet to be able to break it. This time around, Seto had proven to be stronger, more devious, and more resilient than Gozaburo remembered. Seeing the young man now made Gozaburo think of what could have been if only he'd succeeded in breaking Seto and molding him into what Gozaburo had wanted. He'd made one major mistake early on, a mistake that had cost him everything.

The younger brother had made all the difference. When he'd first adopted the boys, Gozaburo had thought of Mokuba as inconsequential. Seto had made his terms clear, so refusing to adopt Mokuba had not been an option. Gozaburo hadn't minded the condition, because he'd realized that he could use the boy to control Seto. That plan had worked, up to a point. What Gozaburo hadn't realized until it was too late was that Mokuba had given Seto the drive to endure and, ultimately, defeat Gozaburo. All of the brainwashing, the abuse, and the neglect he'd put Seto through would have done their intended purpose of stripping the humanity from Seto, if it hadn't been for that skinny, little boy who kept reminding his brother that there was something worth living for.

Now that Gozaburo thought about it, he could almost pinpoint the exact moment Mokuba became Seto's anchor. When the boys had come home with him, he'd immediately separated them. He wanted Seto to think about nothing except what Gozaburo wanted him to think, and Mokuba would be a distraction. Gozaburo had underestimated the level of responsibility Seto felt for Mokuba, however, and the separation he had imposed on them only served to heighten Seto's paternal instincts to the point where Seto would find ways to sneak out of his lessons to go look for his brother.

It was during one of these visits, six months into their stay at the mansion, that Gozaburo had caught them. The events that followed had seemed inconsequential at the time, but looking back now, Gozaburo knew that the confrontation between him and Seto that night had taken away what little chance he'd had to completely own Seto and mold him into the perfect heir.

&&

"_Where is the little bastard?" Gozaburo asked the empty room. _

_It was Wednesday night, and he'd come into the study to supervise the last half of Seto's lesson. Instead of finding his newly adopted son sitting at his desk studying diligently, he'd found an empty desk and an equally empty room. Seto should have learned by now not to skip out on his lessons. Gozaburo had made the punishment clear the first time the boy had chosen not to attend, but it had apparently not had the effect he'd intended. He would just have to find his wayward, adoptive son and remind him of the consequences of skipping his lessons. _

_Gozaburo left the study and headed upstairs to look for Seto in the most obvious place: his room. The mansion was substantial, but Seto hadn't been living in it long enough to have figured out where the secret passages and hidden rooms were. Gozaburo doubted that Seto had gotten to do much exploring around the house, so if the boy was not in his room, there were few other places he could have gone. _

_Before he could arrive at his destination, however, a squeal from the other end of the hallway caught his attention. Gozaburo's lips curved up in a half smile when he realized what room the noise had come from. He changed direction and headed towards the second most obvious place Seto could have gone: Mokuba's room. When he reached it, he put his ear against the door and listened. He wasn't going to waste his time going into the room if Mokuba was the only one in there. _

"_Big brother!"_

_The outburst was immediately followed by a shushing sound, which had no doubt come from Seto. The boy had apparently found the secret passage that led to Mokuba's room. Gozaburo's simmering anger spiked, and it took everything he had to stand still and simply listen. _

"_Hush, Mokuba," Seto whispered, "we don't want to get caught."_

"_I'm sorry, big brother, but I haven't seen you in so long," Mokuba said, his voice much softer this time. _

"_I know, but I have a lot of other things that father wants me to do," Seto said. _

"_What kind of things?" Mokuba asked. _

"_It doesn't matter, Mokuba," Seto replied. _

_The boys were silent for a moment, until Mokuba spoke. "I don't like him, brother."_

_Gozaburo wasn't surprised by the comment in the least. Mokuba always tried to make himself unnoticeable when he was in the same room with Gozaburo, and Gozaburo, for his part, hadn't done anything to gain Mokuba's favor. _

"_He's our father now, Mokuba," Seto explained. "You need to respect that. Do what he says and don't get in trouble, okay? You don't want him to get mad at you."_

_The boys were silent again and Gozaburo heard some movement in the room. _

"_Does he treat you well, brother?"_

_Seto didn't have an answer to that. "Are you okay, Mokuba? Are you sleeping okay, eating okay?" Seto asked instead. _

"_I'm fine, brother; I just don't get to spend any time with you."_

_He'd thought that the separation he'd imposed on the brothers had the desired effect, but, as Gozaburo had found out tonight, Mokuba had become too much of a distraction for Seto. A line had to be drawn, and he was about to do it in the most effective way possible. Gozaburo pushed open the door and had to smother a look of triumph at the look of horror on both boys' faces. Mokuba immediately moved away from Gozaburo while Seto stepped in Gozaburo's path. Gozaburo grabbed Seto's arm and dragged him out of the room. _

"_Mokuba, come with us," Gozaburo commanded. _

_When the boy didn't move, Gozaburo squeezed Seto's arm hard enough to make him scream. Mokuba immediately followed. Gozaburo didn't bother to slow his pace and neither boy could keep up. Seto was being dragged along and Mokuba was running behind them. Gozaburo headed for the room where Seto was supposed to have been studying. When he reached it, he locked the door behind them. Mokuba stood by the door, tears running down his cheeks. Gozaburo turned away from the younger brother to look upon the face of the older brother, which was now schooled into a blank mask. _

"_What do you have to say for yourself?" Gozaburo asked as he held Seto up by the arm. _

_Seto didn't reply. He simply held Gozaburo's gaze, his blue eyes shimmering with pain and fear, and something else: defiance. It was what Gozaburo wanted in the boy; he wanted fear and defiance, hate and contempt. He needed Seto to be ruthless and fearless, or else the boy would crumble under the pressure of his type of business. _

"_Fine," Gozaburo said and released Seto. "If you're not going to hold yourself accountable for your actions, I'll make someone else accountable."_

_Gozaburo headed for Mokuba and kneeled beside the boy so that Seto could still see his brother's face. He patted Mokuba on the head, and then ran his hands over Mokuba's hair. He didn't look at Seto, but could feel the boy's eyes boring into him. He caressed Mokuba's neck with one hand, while holding the boy's head steady with the other. Finally, his hand closed around the small neck and began to squeeze. Mokuba's eyes grew wide and his mouth opened in a futile attempt to draw in more oxygen. _

"_Since you won't take responsibility for your actions tonight, Seto, I'll have your brother do it for you. Is that what you want?" Gozaburo asked. _

_Gozaburo didn't get a verbal response. Instead, Seto threw himself at Gozaburo, his small arms pulling at Gozaburo's much bigger arms. The attempt was futile, of course, but Gozaburo gave him credit for it anyway. He let go of Mokuba's neck and then used the same hand to land a punch in Seto's side, hard enough to send the boy tumbling halfway to the other end of the room. Mokuba fell onto the carpeted floor, gasping for breath and sobbing. Gozaburo ignored him and headed for Seto, who had curled in on himself with his hands holding the side where Gozaburo had hit him._

"_You dare raise your hand to me, you ungrateful little brat?" Gozaburo asked. "You should be thankful that I've given you and your brother a home."_

_Seto picked himself up and stood in front of Gozaburo. His eyes shone with unshed tears, and Gozaburo was gratified that Seto hadn't let them fall. The blow had to have hurt, it was intended to cause damage, but Seto was not wincing or whimpering in pain. Instead, he met Gozaburo's eyes._

"_Don't lay a hand on my brother," he said. "I'm the one you want to 'train', so concentrate your efforts on me."_

_Gozaburo gave himself an imaginary pat on the back. Yes, using the younger brother to manipulate the older brother had definitely been a good idea. _

"_You agree that I should punish you for skipping your lesson tonight, then?" Gozaburo asked. _

_Seto nodded._

"_Fine. Take off your clothes."_

_Seto frowned at the unexpected command and confusion flittered through his eyes. _

"_I said take your clothes off."_

_Gozaburo turned towards the bookcase and came face to face with Mokuba. _

"_What are you going to do to my big brother?" Mokuba asked. "It was my fault, too." The boy's face was stained with tears, and his neck bore finger shaped marks that would undoubtedly turn into bruises. _

"_He's paying for both of your sins," Gozaburo said. _

_He pushed Mokuba out of his way and retrieved the riding crop he kept on the second shelf of the bookcase. He didn't ride anymore, so he had no use for the thing in the traditional sense. He could make some use out of it now, though. When he returned to Seto, the boy was standing in his underwear where Gozaburo had left him. _

"_Put your hands on the edge of the desk," Gozaburo instructed. _

_Seto did as he was told, so that he was leaning slightly over the desk, leaving his back and legs exposed. _

"_Remember the price for disobedience," Gozaburo said and brought down the riding crop. _

_Seto managed to smother the whimper of pain during the first few blows, but by the time Gozaburo finished, the boy was screaming. Mokuba was screaming as well, until both voices melded into one. He let the riding crop drop when he was finished and winced in distaste when he saw that drops of blood had stained his white shirt. _

"_Mokuba, take your brother to his room."_

_It took a couple of minutes, but Mokuba finally made his way towards them. His eyes were wide and he was hesitant about getting close to his brother, who had remained on his feet throughout the entire ordeal even though his back was bleeding from the blows. Mokuba reached out a hesitant hand and placed it on top of his brother's clean, right hand. _

"_Big brother," Mokuba said. _

_Seto's response was automatic. He jerked his hand out of Mokuba's grip. _

"_Mokuba, go to your room," Seto said, his voice hoarse and almost inaudible. _

_Mokuba looked from Seto to Gozaburo, confusion clearly on his face. _

"_But Seto…"_

"_I said go to your room," Seto insisted. _

_Mokuba looked at Gozaburo for permission to do as his brother asked, and Gozaburo shrugged. If Seto was refusing the help, that was his problem. With one last look at his older brother, Mokuba left the room. Gozaburo sat on one of the chairs in the study and watched as Seto slowly straightened. Tears had left tracks down his cheeks, and his eyes were red and swollen. Once he'd straightened to his full height, he turned to Gozaburo. _

"_You've made your point, Father," Seto said. "I will not be that weak again."_

_Without another word, Seto picked up the discarded clothing and then made his way out of the study. He held his head high and walked out of the study on steady legs. Gozaburo watched the spot where Seto had been for a long time and thought that he'd finally found someone worthy of his fortune. Seto would indeed turn into a magnificent heir someday. _

_&&_

That was the one and only time that Mokuba had witnessed one of Seto's punishments. The boy had been young and had probably forgotten the incident shortly after it happened, but it had left enough of an impression on him that, after that night, he no longer actively sought out his brother.

Gozaburo thought that he'd won that night by managing to sever the link between the brothers, when all he'd really done was to strengthen it. In the years that followed, Seto had done an admirable job of pretending that Mokuba was unimportant to him, and Gozaburo had believed him. At the same time, Mokuba had learned to distance himself from his brother, and the boys had grown seemingly apart. What Gozaburo hadn't realized until long after he'd deposited his mind into the mainframe was that it had all been an act, and like a fool he'd fallen for it.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and Gozaburo had been given many years in which to think about the wrongs done to him and what he'd do to right those wrongs. Destroying Seto's mind and taking over his body was the best way to get back at the boy that gave him so much hope for an heir, and then betrayed him. All he had to do now was incapacitate Seto enough to take him into the house and perform the spells, and then it would all be over. Gozaburo knew this forest like the back of his hand, and he had something with him that could almost guarantee a quick and efficient end to this whole ordeal. He also had a doctor friend standing by who could patch the body back together from the damage he was going to do to it. All he had to do now was lure his prey into the trap.

Gozaburo had no doubt that Seto wanted this confrontation over as much as he did, so there would be no cat and mouse game tonight. Seto would undoubtedly be waiting for him at his favorite spot on the edge of the cliff overlooking the river, so Gozaburo quickened his pace. The sooner they got this started, the sooner it would end.

&&&&

Kaiba sat at the edge of the cliff Yugi had fallen off of earlier that day and looked down at the river below. When he'd been younger and Gozaburo wasn't around, he'd spent hours sitting on this same edge, wondering what it would feel like to fall into the water below. He'd have to ask Yugi about it, though Kaiba doubted that Yugi would want to remember any part of the experience.

Sighing, Kaiba looked away from the water below and studied his surroundings. Darkness had fallen hours ago, and Gozaburo hadn't made an appearance. A part of Kaiba wondered if the man was out setting traps for him, but as soon as the thought entered his mind Kaiba dismissed it. Gozaburo could try all he wanted, but Kaiba was confident that he'd win in the end. He'd defeated his adoptive father once before, and tonight would be no different.

"I want you to stay out of this, Yami," Kaiba said once he was satisfied that Gozaburo was not lurking in the surrounding trees.

He felt the spirit's presence like a cloak around him, which was both unnerving and oddly soothing. This particular experience had always been his alone, and it felt wrong to have someone else share it. At the same time, a small part of him that still remembered the loneliness that came from years living with Gozaburo liked the fact that he didn't have to face his adoptive father alone this time.

"What makes you think I'm going to interfere?" Yami replied without making himself visible.

The voice startled Kaiba, because even though he'd addressed the spirit, he hadn't expected Yami to respond.

"There was a reason neither Yugi nor Mr. Moto fought harder to keep the puzzle. I'm not stupid or blind enough not to see it," Kaiba responded.

Yami's reply wasn't immediate. "Why do you resist so much Kaiba? Why is it so hard for you to believe that someone other than Mokuba might give a damn whether you live or die?"

_Why indeed, _Kaiba thought to himself. _Unnecessary baggage _was the automatic response.

He couldn't afford to care about anyone other than Mokuba, and he'd stopped actively seeking attachments to other people when his mother had died bringing Mokuba into the world and left him with a distant and unapproachable father. The small part of him that still longed for a family after his father died was effectively killed at the orphanage, cementing once and for all that Mokuba was the only person he needed a bond with. Besides, bonds carried responsibility, and Kaiba had enough promises to keep without indebting himself to someone else.

"I repaid my debt to Mr. Moto, I've repaid my debt to you, and I've repaid my debt to Yugi," Kaiba replied. "There are no longer any ties binding us."

Yami chuckled. "It's too bad that we don't simply see promises or debts," Yami said. "Mr. Moto is already attached to you and he will continue to be, whether you owe him something or not. Yugi shared a horrifying experience with you, one that he will more than likely never forget. That alone has bound the two of you together, whether you want to admit it or not. As for me…"

Yami trailed off, and Kaiba found himself actually wanting to know Yami's answer.

"You and I are more alike than either of us likes to acknowledge. That is our bond, Kaiba. Losing that would be unacceptable."

Kaiba's eyes widened at the unexpected admission from the spirit. In his own way, Yami had just said that he would miss Kaiba, which Kaiba found hard to believe.

"Now I really know you're full of it, Yami," Kaiba said. "Wouldn't you prefer that I was no longer around to get in your way?"

"What good is a life lived in obscurity?" Yami countered, "You've always acknowledged me for me, and not just because I live through Yugi. For that, you will always have my outmost respect."

Before he could fully digest what Yami had said, Kaiba was thrown back to his encounter with Yami in the Moto's backyard after his mini breakdown in the bathroom. What Kaiba had viewed as pity and manipulation then suddenly didn't seem like it at all, and Yami's words at the time brought him the comfort they should have then.

"I overreacted back then," Kaiba said.

"What?" Yami asked, clearly confused with the change of subject.

"After you found out about what happened in Egypt, you tried to help, but I threw your words in your face and ran away. I overreacted."

Kaiba half expected Yami to start celebrating the fact that Kaiba had just admitted he had been wrong, and was pleasantly surprised when that didn't happen.

"My pledge to help you and Yugi still stands, Kaiba. Like you, I don't go back on my promises."

Kaiba's lips curved up into a small smile. That mind set he could definitely understand.

The sound of a branch breaking somewhere behind him interrupted the conversation and Kaiba turned in the direction of the sound, but saw nothing but trees swaying slightly in the wind.

_He's here, _Kaiba thought as the adrenaline rushed through him.

He got to his feet and put some distance between himself and the cliff. He strained his ears for any sign that would tell him where Gozaburo was, but heard only the sounds of nature. If Gozaburo played the game as expected, he would stay in the shadows for a while and every now and then give a Kaiba a clue to his whereabouts by breaking a branch or throwing a rock out of his hiding place. When Kaiba had first been forced to participate in this game, it had terrified him know that he was being watched and hunted like an animal. It had also frustrated him that no matter how hard he tried, he'd never been able to find Gozaburo. Now, Gozaburo's tactic only annoyed him and delayed the end of this exercise.

"Come on out, Gozaburo," Kaiba finally said. "I know you're watching. Wouldn't you rather we just get this over with?"

There was no response. Kaiba slowly circled the clearing and wished that the moon was just a little brighter so that he could see into the shadows between the trees. Something moved in front of him, and Kaiba immediately reacted by stepping away from the offending object, which turned out to be a small rabbit. Kaiba glared at the creature until it scurried away, and attempted to calm his racing heart. Memories of previous outings in this forest tried to claw to the surface of Kaiba's mind, but he forcefully shoved them away. He couldn't afford to be distracted by his childhood fears. He didn't have time for it.

The snap of another branch breaking came at the same time that a body collided against him. The momentum sent Kaiba to the ground, and he landed on his side, with his left shoulder and hip taking the brunt of the fall. The Millennium Puzzle crashed to the ground with him, and Kaiba half expected it to shatter into pieces, but was surprised when it only glowed softly.

'Sorry, Yami,' Kaiba thought to the spirit.

Gozaburo was heavy and was using the superior weight to pin Kaiba to the ground. The feel of someone else's body on top of his, of hands holding him down, brought panic rushing through Kaiba. He fought blindly, desperately, to get away, but he was having no success.

_It's Gozaburo, it's not them,_ Kaiba told himself as he tried to calm down. _Get a grip!_

Gozaburo managed to turn Kaiba onto his back and pin his arms to his side, but hadn't been able to secure Kaiba's legs. Finally remembering his training, Kaiba kneed Gozaburo in the back, which caused the man to momentarily loose his grip. That was enough for Kaiba to get to his hands and knees and move away from the attack. Gozaburo recovered quicker than Kaiba would have imagined, however, and threw himself at Kaiba before Kaiba had managed to get to his feet. Gozaburo landed awkwardly across Kaiba's lower back and sent him sprawling to the ground once again. Kaiba's chin impacted with the ground, and the pain from the impact froze him for a moment. The smell of blood reached his nose at the same time he felt something trickling down his chin and neck.

No matter how much he told himself that this was Gozaburo and that his adoptive father wasn't trying to do to him what the men back in Egypt had done, Kaiba couldn't separate the two. Gozaburo's body became theirs, and whatever Gozaburo was saying now became taunts and grunts of pleasure.

The Millennium Rod, which Kaiba had secured into the waistband of his slacks, dug painfully into his lower back from Gozaburo's weight pushing down on it. The Millennium Puzzle, which rested next to Kaiba's face, suddenly began to glow. Kaiba couldn't see it, but he could feel the Millennium Rod glowing at his back as well. A burst of magic rushed through him, and before Kaiba knew it, he was no longer in the forest in the middle of the night, but was instead in the desert with the sun shinning mercilessly down on him.

Panic rushed through Kaiba for a second time as he recognized his surroundings. Gozaburo's weight on top of him disappeared, only to be replaced by the weight of many others. Kaiba was once again lying on his back in the sand with the blue sky above him, struggling to escape the grip of the men that had taken so much from him. Pain overwhelmed him and made his eyes fill with tears, and all he could do was scream for a mercy that would not come.

_This isn't right; I wasn't here a minute ago _a small part of Kaiba's mind reminded him.

Something was different, because as the men shifted so that someone else could take their turn, Kaiba saw Gozaburo standing off to one side, watching. The expression on his face was unreadable, until their eyes met. When they did, Gozaburo grinned.

"This is no more than you deserve," Gozaburo said and Kaiba heard it clearly, even through the screams and the grunts of the men.

Shame flooded through Kaiba and he had to look away. He hadn't been strong enough to fight and keep this from happening, so Gozaburo must be right. If he couldn't defend himself, then he deserved what was being done to him, and more. What was the use fighting anyway? Wasn't he better off if he just accepted his fate? Maybe they'd kill him this time and do everyone a favor.

"Remember, Kaiba."

The voice was not immediately recognizable, but there was something about it that made Kaiba pay attention. It sounded familiar, and yet totally alien at the same time. The blinding blue of the sky dimmed a little, and for a second, Kaiba thought that he could see stars.

"Your fear triggered the Millennium Puzzle's magic because of it's spirit's desire to protect you. However, the Millennium Rod reacted as well and threw you back to the source of that fear. This isn't real in the physical sense, Kaiba, but it is as real as the magic of the items can make it. You can conquer it or you can let it destroy you," the voice said again, and this time Kaiba recognized it as the high priest's voice.

_This can't be conquered,_ Kaiba thought through the haze of pain. _I've already lost this fight._

"You _can_ conquer it," the high priest said, his voice getting softer each time he spoke. "This is a world of your making, Kaiba; just as you triggered being brought here you can trigger an escape. Just remember where you were."

_How can I remember where I was when it hurts so much to be where I am now?_

Kaiba's head lolled to the side, and his eyes landed on the figure of his adoptive father, who was still watching intently.

_That's right; I was with him in the forest, wasn't I? _Kaiba thought. _Didn't the priest say to remember where I was?_

Kaiba closed his eyes and pictured the river he'd been looking at earlier. He didn't belong in this nightmare, not anymore. He needed to go back to the forest and finish what he and Gozaburo had started. The sand faded and was replaced by hard ground. When Kaiba opened his eyes, he found himself facing Gozaburo's grinning face. The man had taken advantage of Kaiba's inattention and had pinned Kaiba's arms to his sides, while his knees held Kaiba's legs down.

"What do you know?" Gozaburo said. "If I had known that's all it took to break you, I would have done it years ago."

The Millennium Puzzle glowed brightly and Yami's voice exploded in his head.

"Now, Kaiba!"

Gozaburo's grip on him had loosened, and Kaiba managed to twist free of the man's grip. He scrambled to his feet, tripped once and almost fell down again, but finally managed to remain upright. He was shaking badly and his teeth were chattering. Even though he was no longer in the world the Millennium Rod had created for him, his memories of the experience that had triggered it were fresh in his mind. His body ached with remembered pain and his eyes filled with treacherous tears that he refused to allow to fall. He was out of breath, but worse of all, he'd lost all of his focus and was instead stuck in his memories, helpless, lost, confused, and in pain.

"They sure had their way with you," Gozaburo said. "I wish I'd been there to see them do first hand what I could never manage to do."

Kaiba retreated one shaky step at a time. His mind was jumbled; full of fragments of a nightmare that was all too real, and he couldn't bring himself out of it. He was hyperventilating and he felt cold, almost numb.

"So when did it happen, Seto? From what I saw, it wasn't too long ago," Gozaburo said as he came closer to Kaiba. "I always wondered what it would take to get that look of utter hopelessness on your face. It was quite a treat to see your composure completely broken as you screamed for mercy. How did it feel when the control you lived your life for was so easily taken from you? Someone finally put you in your place, Seto. All stray dogs deserve no less."

Kaiba shook his head. This wasn't right, Gozaburo wasn't right. What they'd done to him wasn't right. The way they'd made him feel wasn't right. Or was it?

"If you had allowed me to properly train you, that incident would have never happened. You're weak, Seto, no matter how you like to pretend otherwise. A stronger man would never have allowed himself to be taken in such a disgusting manner."

Kaiba had no argument, because Gozaburo wasn't telling him anything that he hadn't already told himself. He was weak for not being able to stop them from hurting him.

"Aren't you going to say anything Seto or have you finally learned to listen to your father?"

Kaiba couldn't meet Gozaburo's eyes, because he didn't want to see the triumph he was sure he'd see there. Kaiba had never shown Gozaburo any weakness in all the years he'd lived with the man, no matter what Gozaburo had done to him. Now, in one short moment, Gozaburo had seen him helpless and afraid.

"Under any other circumstances, would you believe anything your adoptive father said?"

Yami's soft voice echoed in Kaiba's head, and it took him a while to understand what Yami had said. Kaiba shook his head in reply, even though Yami probably couldn't see it. What was the point, anyway? Gozaburo was right this time, wasn't he?

"Then why would you believe him now?" Yami continued. "A man that can watch those men brutally rape you and agree with what they did deserves nothing but a quick death."

Yami's words touched a crack in Kaiba's heart and slowly mended it. Warmth flowed through him from both Millennium items and their magic dispelled the numbness and cleared his mind. Kaiba stopped retreating and finally met his adoptive father's eyes.

"You're wrong," Kaiba said, his voice soft, but firm. "The sin lies in the perpetrator, not the victim."

"Victims are weak, that's why they're victims. You loose, you die, Seto. Didn't I at least teach you that?"

Kaiba took a small measure of comfort from the two presences he could feel with him and took several steps closer to Gozaburo.

"You think you're strong because you prey on those weaker or less fortunate than you?" Kaiba asked, his voice gaining volume as he spoke. "You're right Gozaburo, you loose and you die. That's why you died the first time, remember? You lost the game we played."

"I'm not dead now," Gozaburo said, "and you won't be around much longer to care anyway."

Kaiba chuckled, and before he knew it, the chuckle had turned into full fledged laughter. He couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed, but it felt damn good to do it right now.

"What's so funny?" Gozaburo asked when Kaiba's laughter had died down.

"You're only here because of a fluke, Gozaburo, a mistake one priest thousands of years ago made."

Gozaburo frowned at the comment. "Have you lost your mind, Seto?"

Instead of a reply, Kaiba reached behind him and pulled out the Millennium Rod. The item glowed softly in the moonlight, and Kaiba could feel its magic tingle his hand and arm.

"What is that? Is that another Millennium Item?" Gozaburo asked.

Kaiba could see the desire for the item clearly in Gozaburo's face and his theory of why the man wanted the puzzle suddenly became a little more than a theory.

"You're not thinking that you can use this item to destroy my mind and take my body, are you?" Kaiba asked.

Gozaburo seemed genuinely surprised by the question.

"Do you think I'm dense, Gozaburo? Why else would you agree to come out here and "fight" me? I know a little of what these items can do. What makes you think I'm going to give either one to you?"

Gozaburo's surprise turned to anger. "You don't have to _give_ me anything, Seto. I plan on taking those items from you by force."

Kaiba smirked. "Yes, but you can't use too much force, can you Gozaburo? You don't want to damage your future body, do you?"

Making Gozaburo angry had always worked to Kaiba's advantage, because the man was easier to manipulate when he wasn't thinking clearly. Kaiba needed Gozaburo to make a mistake now; he needed Gozaburo to want to take the Millennium Rod, or else he wouldn't be able to destroy the soul that was giving Gozaburo's body life.

"I have someone standing by to heal the body if I damage it too much," Gozaburo said. "You don't have to worry about it, Seto, because you won't be using it for too much longer."

As if to prove his point, Gozaburo reached behind him and pulled out a handgun. Kaiba froze at the sight, because he had not expected his adoptive father to bring a weapon. The man never had before, choosing instead to prolong these exercises for as long as he could. The fact that he had a weapon now proved to Kaiba that Gozaburo was in a hurry and was willing to damage Kaiba's body enough simply to get this over with quickly.

"Surprised, Seto?" Gozaburo said as he removed the safety.

The gun definitely changed Kaiba's plan. He couldn't afford to be incapacitated to the point where he couldn't get away, because it had become apparent that Gozaburo had already planned how he would take Kaiba's body and was simply waiting for the Millennium Puzzle to do it. He couldn't exactly outrun a bullet, however.

Kaiba looked away from Gozaburo, but not before he showed an appropriate amount of fear.

"The Millennium Rod is a lot more powerful than that Millennium Puzzle," Kaiba said softly as if talking to himself, but loud enough so that Gozaburo couldn't help but hear. He clutched the item in both hands for emphasis. "I can't let him have it."

_Give the man what he wants, _Kaiba thought, _give him the promise of unlimited power and watch him follow._

With that, Kaiba took off running. He darted into the forest to his left, back in the direction of the house. If he was going to let himself get shot, he might as well be as close to his escape route as possible. Going back to the house was not an option, because whoever Gozaburo had brought to "heal" the body was probably there. There was a path behind the house, however, that led to the main road. That was how Kaiba would make his escape.

The first shot whizzed past his right arm and struck a tree. Kaiba turned right, deeper into the maze of tree trunks and hanging branches. The second shot grazed his left side, tearing through the fabric of his shirt but not touching his skin. This concerned Kaiba, because he'd thought that Gozaburo would aim at his legs to slow him down enough to catch. He was firing too high, which made Kaiba rethink the situation. Gozaburo was an excellent marksman and even the fact that Kaiba was taller and faster shouldn't be making the man miss by such a large margin. No, Gozaburo was intentionally aiming that high, which meant that the man intended to do serious damage.

The third shot reached its mark, hitting Kaiba on the left thigh. He hissed at the pain and then grunted as the leg collapsed underneath him and he fell. Before he hit the ground, a fourth shot rang out. Kaiba twisted in mid fall and managed to hide most of his body behind the closest tree trunk, but couldn't avoid the bits of bark that peppered his neck and face as the bullet struck the tree he was hiding behind. He hit the ground hard and couldn't keep his grip on Millennium Rod. The item landed with a soft thud somewhere out of his view.

Kaiba cursed at his stupidity. Gozaburo had been toying with him by aiming high and had managed to distract him. He'd gotten hit sooner than he'd intended, but there was nothing he could do about it now. Kaiba lay where he'd landed on his back, out of breath, his jaw clenched against the fiery pain in his leg.

"Just as I thought, you put up a good fight, Seto," Gozaburo said as he came within range of Kaiba. "In the end, it was not enough. I'll be taking the puzzle from you now."

Gozaburo stepped closer to Kaiba, and his foot hit the Millennium Rod Kaiba had dropped. The item glowed softly in the moonlight as if beckoning Gozaburo to pick it up. Kaiba remained still and kept his mouth shut as he watched his adoptive father's face in the moonlight. The man seemed torn between his distrust of Kaiba and his desire for the power Kaiba had said the item possessed. After what seemed like an eternity, Gozaburo dropped the gun and picked up the Millennium Rod. He stared at it, seemingly enchanted by it.

"You said this had more power than the puzzle, didn't you, Seto?" Gozaburo asked, still looking at the item in his hand

Kaiba shrugged. "I said that, but I don't think it's true."

Gozaburo turned to him then, his expression one of confusion, before it turned to rage when he realized what Kaiba had done.

"Did you really think I'd tell you the truth?" Kaiba asked. "Say goodbye, Gozaburo. Your second shot at life will meet the same end as your first attempt. I win again."

Kaiba recited the unbinding spell the priest had taught him and had just managed to finish it when Gozaburo dropped the item as if he'd been burned.

"What did you do?" his adoptive father asked.

The man reached Kaiba and kicked the teenager's injured leg. Kaiba's scream of pain was cut off as Gozaburo grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him halfway to a sitting position.

"You insolent, ungrateful brat, what did you do?"

"You were on borrowed time, and it's now up," Kaiba replied. "That body was given to you because of a mistake someone made thousands of years ago. Through me, he's finally able to rectify that mistake."

Gozaburo's face was very close to Kaiba's, and Kaiba couldn't remember ever seeing the man as angry as he was now. Nothing was happening, though, which made Kaiba wonder if the spell he'd recited had done anything at all. If the spell had failed, he wasn't going to be able to do anything in his current condition to stop Gozaburo from taking the puzzle and doing what he planned to do.

Suddenly, Gozaburo's eyes widened. He let go of Kaiba's shirt and got to his feet. There was a bright flash of light, and when Kaiba was able to see once again, Gozaburo was gone. Kaiba stared at the spot for quite a while, before letting his upper body fall back to the ground. He lay on his back and stared at the moon for a long while as the adrenaline drained out of his body, leaving him cold, hollow, and in a lot of pain.

"Are you seriously hurt, Kaiba?" Yami asked, suddenly visible beside Kaiba.

"The bullet just grazed my thigh, I think. It's not serious," Kaiba said.

The fabric above the wound was wet, and he was starting to feel lightheaded from the blood loss, but it wasn't as bad as it would be had the bullet actually penetrated. He just needed a moment to get used to the pain and then he'd be fine.

"You did it," Yami said. "He's gone."

Kaiba didn't reply. Instead, he took a deep breath and got himself to a sitting position. Yami kneeled beside him, but Kaiba refused to look at the spirit. They remained like that for a while, until Kaiba broke the silence.

"I finally get it," he said.

"You get what?" Yami asked.

"I finally understand what Mr. Moto and Yugi were trying to tell me about Egypt," Kaiba said. "What Gozaburo did to me, the way he raised me, is no different than what those men did to me. I didn't let what Gozaburo did to me define who I am or determine what I'm worth, and I won't let the bandits do it either."

Kaiba finally looked at Yami and was rewarded by a rare smile from the spirit.

"It's going to haunt me for the rest of my life, but it doesn't have to define me."

Yami's smile widened. "Small steps, Kaiba, that's all you can take."

Kaiba nodded and, with a little work, managed to get to his feet. He picked up the Millennium Rod and tucked in into his slacks.

"Come on, Yami, let's go. It's freezing out here."

&&&&

An hour and a half later found Kaiba outside of Yugi's hospital room. He'd managed to limp to the main road and to a streetlight, where he'd examined the wound to make sure that it was just a graze, even though it was bleeding quite a bit. After that, he'd called a cab, and when the cab had shown up, the driver hadn't been too happy to find out that his client was injured and would more than likely stain his backseat with blood. Luckily, Kaiba had several large bills on him and the cabbie had been more than willing to do as Kaiba asked once he'd been given the money.

After everything that had happened that night, Kaiba's first instinct had been to go home and shut himself in his room for a few days to recover, but he had two Millennium Items to return to their rightful owner. Furthermore, Mokuba was with the Motos and Kaiba couldn't go home without him.

He knocked on the door and pushed it open when he heard a tired "come in". Inside, he found Yugi asleep on the bed, and Mr. Moto rubbing his eyes from a chair next to the bed. When he saw Kaiba, the sleepiness cleared from his face and he immediately made his way to Kaiba. Before the teenager realized what was happening, Mr. Moto had wrapped his arms around Kaiba.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Seto, I was so worried."

Kaiba was caught off guard and didn't know what he should do. His first instinct was to push the man away, but he couldn't do that. He settled instead for resting his hands on Mr. Moto's back and patting it gently.

"I'm fine, Mr. Moto, it's all over," Kaiba said.

Mr. Moto released him and examined his face carefully. The man's hands touched the cuts on his face, chin, and neck, and Kaiba could see Mr. Moto's eyes harden as he looked at each new wound. Mr. Moto pulled him over to one of the other chairs in the room, but Kaiba's leg decided it didn't want to work at that moment. He would have fallen, if not for Mr. Moto's strong arm around his waist.

"What happened?" the elder man asked looking at the bloodstained pant leg.

"Gozaburo had a gun," Kaiba said.

Mr. Moto's eyes widened. "You've been shot?"

Before Kaiba could react, Mr. Moto had led Kaiba over to Yugi's bed, nudged Yugi awake, and had made the teenager scoot over so that Kaiba could sit beside him on the bed. Yugi blinked at both of them as he pulled himself out of sleep.

"Kaiba, you're back!" Yugi said and then his eyes fell to the tear in Kaiba's slacks and the blood surrounding it. "I thought I heard something about you being shot. Are you okay? Should we go get a doctor?"

"I'm going to go get one right now," Mr. Moto said.

"No," Kaiba replied and grabbed the man's arm. "You can't get a doctor involved, Mr. Moto. He'll ask questions that I can't answer and he'll want to involve the police. What am I supposed to tell them when they ask? Somehow, I don't think 'my adoptive father came back from the dead and tried to take over my body, so he shot me to incapacitate me' will be very convincing."

"You need to be treated, young man," Mr. Moto insisted, ignoring Kaiba's sarcasm.

"The wound isn't deep. I can clean and dress it when I get home," Kaiba said. "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Mr. Moto shook his head. "I don't think so. Sit right there while I go get some supplies. You're not going to leave this hospital bleeding."

Kaiba opened his mouth to argue further, but Yugi's hand on his arm stopped him.

"I wouldn't argue with him when he gets like this," Yugi said. "He's hard-headed and you can't talk him out of something once he's made up his mind."

Kaiba looked from grandson to grandfather and sighed. Mr. Moto took the response as agreement and quickly left the room.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Yugi asked. "That looks nasty."

"I'm fine, Yugi," he said.

Kaiba examined Yugi and was glad to note that the young man didn't look as pale as he had by the river earlier that day. Kaiba also noticed that Yugi looked as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. The teenager's eyes still looked haunted, but not as hopeless as they had earlier. Suddenly remembering the reason he'd come to the hospital, Kaiba slipped the puzzle off his neck.

"Here, Yugi, this belongs to you." Kaiba said.

Yugi took the puzzle, ran his hands lovingly over it, and then put it on.

"Did the puzzle help?" Yugi asked once the puzzle rested comfortably against his chest.

Kaiba couldn't help the small twitch of his lips. "Yes, it did. Yami and I even managed to come to a mutual understanding," Kaiba said.

Yugi smiled. "I'm glad."

"Are the two of you going to be okay?" Kaiba asked, referring to the fact that Yami had found out about what happened in Egypt against Yugi's wishes.

Yugi's eyes clouded over momentarily and his smile slipped a little.

"I think so. We just have some things to talk about."

Further conversation was interrupted as Mr. Moto returned with his hands full of gauze, medical tape, a bottle of alcohol, a bottle of pain medication, and a bottle of water.

"What did you do, Grandpa, raid the supply closet?" Yugi asked.

"No, I just talked the pretty nurse into letting me have these. I told her that my other grandson was a klutz and had gashed his thigh. Yugi, could you…"

The man trailed off and Kaiba wondered what he was going to ask, when he felt the bed shift beside him. Kaiba turned to see that Yugi was now lying on his side, facing away from them, giving Kaiba as much privacy as the small room allowed.

"I need you to take off your pants and lay on your side so I can clean the wound, Kaiba."

Kaiba did as asked and watched in fascination as Mr. Moto expertly cleaned the wound with the alcohol and then carefully covered it with gauze and medical tape.

"You'll need to clean it again tomorrow and make sure it doesn't get infected," Mr. Moto said as Kaiba put his pants back on. "Here, something for the pain."

Kaiba took the offered painkillers and downed them with the water. When Mr. Moto was satisfied that he'd done everything he could, he motioned towards the door.

"Can I talk to you outside?" Mr. Moto asked.

"Sure," Kaiba said. He glanced at Yugi, who had settled into bed again and was already drifting off to sleep. "Get a good night's sleep, Yugi," Kaiba said to the younger teen. "You look healthier already."

"I will," Yugi replied. "I'm glad you're okay, Kaiba."

They left the room and walked to an empty waiting room.

"How was it?" Mr. Moto asked as he sat on one of the plastic chairs.

"Enlightening," Kaiba said as he took the chair next to Mr. Moto.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Moto asked.

Kaiba battled with himself for several minutes, before deciding that tonight was a night of revelations and Mr. Moto deserved the truth.

"Gozaburo made me realize a few things," Kaiba finally said. "I finally understand what you said to me that night."

Kaiba was relieved to see that he didn't have to elaborate about which night he meant. Mr. Moto studied him carefully for a few moments, and then nodded.

"I can see it, Seto," he said. "Your eyes are a little less clouded."

Kaiba nodded in agreement. He felt a little less heavy, a little less desperate. The incident was still there, and it would always be there, but hopefully he could learn to live with the memories.

"What about Gozaburo?" Mr. Moto asked.

"He had everything perfectly planned," Kaiba said, "but in the end, his desire for power was his downfall."

The two men lapsed into silence as a nurse walked by.

"Where is Mokuba?" Kaiba asked when the nurse was far enough away.

"I sent him home with Tristan and Joey. They should be sleeping soundly by now, or destroying my house," Mr. Moto answered. "Yugi has to stay here overnight, but you're welcome to go to the house and spend the night there."

Kaiba considered the proposal, and as tempting as it was, he had other things to take care of.

"I appreciate the offer, Mr. Moto, but now that Gozaburo is out of our lives again, Mokuba and I need to go back home."

Mr. Moto regarded Kaiba for a long while, and then nodded.

"Very well. Mokuba will be very happy to see you."

Kaiba stood and regarded Mr. Moto carefully.

"Thank you, Mr. Moto."

The elder man smiled gently. "It was my pleasure."

Kaiba accepted this for what it was, a gift, and slowly made his way out of the hospital. It was time to go home.

&&&&

Whew! I'm glad that's over with. Don't forget to leave a comment on the way out!


	37. Small Steps

Greetings!

Well, this is it, the last chapter of Intruders. There was originally supposed to be an epilogue, but by the time I finished writing this chapter I realized that I had already written it the way I wanted the story to end.

**Story stats (for the curious):**

Original publish date: 7/1/03  
Last chapter posted 6/8/07  
I missed the 4 year mark by 23 days. I considered waiting until July 1 to post the final chapter, but figured I'd tortured you all enough.  
Final word count: 202, 908  
Number of pages (Times New Roman, 12pt): 462

There's not much to say now except thank you for sticking with this story through the long months between postings and all of the horrible cliffhangers. Almost four years is a long, long time to wait for the ending, but I hope it's been worth it. This is my favorite story, and I'm glad to have had the chance to share it with all of you. Special thanks go to LuoLiBei and Nenya85 for editing the story. You both made the last chapters the best ones and I thank you for the time you took to sift through my work.

I hope that you've enjoyed the story, and I ask that, if you're here reading this last chapter, to please leave me a review. I'd really like to know who has made it this far.

As always, all mistakes/omissions are my fault. Nenya85 tries hard to steer me in the right direction, but I always manage to find a way off the path.

**Chapter 37: Small Steps**

Kaiba had chosen a dark and out of the way place a good distance away from the hospital's main entrance to wait for his driver. He'd called the mansion after he left Mr. Moto and explained to the butler that Gozaburo was gone and would no longer be terrorizing the staff. The butler had been so relieved to hear the news that he'd wanted to come pick Kaiba up himself, but Kaiba had told him to stay at the house and wait for him instead. It would take the driver some time to make the drive from Domino, which left Kaiba with a little too much time to think.

He hadn't lied to Mr. Moto or Yami when he'd said that Gozaburo's cruel words about what happened in Egypt had made him finally understand that there was nothing he could have done to stop the attack and that he was not to blame for it. Logically understanding that and making his heart realize it were two very different things, however, and right now, all he could focus on was the look of triumph on his adoptive father's face as he'd watched the attack. No matter what he told himself, Kaiba couldn't help but feel the rush of shame that memory brought him.

Kaiba ran his hands over his face and through his hair in a nervous gesture he hadn't exhibited in years. He looked up at the brilliant, night sky and focused on a point of light in an attempt to clear his mind of the memories his submersion into the past by the Millennium Rod had brought to the surface. When the night sky morphed into the impossibly blue sky of ancient Egypt, Kaiba looked away and started to pace.

"Damn it, get a grip," he told himself.

When he'd left the scene of Gozaburo's demise, he'd been in a state of mild shock and hadn't yet fully worked out what he wanted to do next. Kaiba had surprised himself when he'd told the cab driver to head to Tokyo University Hospital. It had been a spur of the moment decision, but it made sense, since he had the Millennium Items to return and Mr. Moto was the last person Kaiba had seen Mokuba with. When the memories began to creep up on him on the drive to Tokyo, Yami's calming presence in the puzzle had grounded him to reality. In the hospital, Mr. Moto's worry had given him something else to focus on. Now, standing alone on an empty street, there was nothing to distract him from the place his mind seemed to be stuck in.

"You're limping."

Kaiba jumped at the unexpected voice and whirled to face the speaker, his heart in his throat.

"You're jumpy too," the high priest added.

"How did you find me?" Kaiba asked, unable to completely mask the fact that the priest had surprised him. "You returned the buckle you were previously using to locate me."

"I didn't need the buckle this time, because now you're keeping something that belongs to me," the priest replied.

Realizing what the priest was referring to, Kaiba reached behind him and retrieved the Millennium Item. "This was very helpful. Thank you," Kaiba said as he returned it to the priest.

"I take it that you succeeded?"

Kaiba nodded. "He was greedy and power hungry to the end."

Seto smirked. "Yes, my priest was like that too." The item glowed softly in its owner's hands before the priest put it away. "The Millennium Rod has a way of showing us the truth in our hearts, whether we want to see it or not. Did it show you what you needed to see?"

Kaiba had a strong urge to feign ignorance about what the priest was referring to, but decided that lying to the priest would be the same as to lying to himself. That was something he'd never done, no matter how difficult his life had become. He'd walked forward on the strength of his convictions and the promises he'd made and he wouldn't back away from this, no matter how difficult the subject. Kaiba was aware that the priest knew what had happened with the bandits, the man had said as much during their first encounter, so Kaiba saw no reason to mince words.

"The Millennium Rod pulled me into what happened… into the rape," Kaiba said, his voice cracking on the word. "It also pulled my adoptive father into it."

"I don't imagine that he reacted any differently than the bandits," the priest said.

"No, he didn't," Kaiba replied. "He was actually very pleased with what happened."

Kaiba saw the priest's face harden in anger, and it suddenly dawned on Kaiba that the priest was one of very few people that had ever been angry on his behalf.

"I'm not surprised," Seto said, his voice hard. "Men like that live on the suffering of others."

Seto stepped closer to Kaiba, so that they were almost touching. Kaiba found himself staring into familiar, blue eyes; eyes that suddenly seemed alien because they displayed a lot more emotion than Kaiba ever allowed himself to.

"That attack was meant for me," Seto finally said. "I was the one who Hori wanted to hurt, the one he wanted to extract revenge from. I should have been the one to go through what you did." Seto paused, but did not look away, which allowed Kaiba to see the regret and guilt that shone in his eyes. "There is nothing that I can do in any lifetime that will ever make up for that. All I can offer is my sincerest apologies."

Seto got to his knees in front of Kaiba and bowed so deeply that his forehead touched the ground. Something twisted in Kaiba's chest and he realized that while he may have been the one to experience the attack, the priest was also a victim, because he would forever live with the guilt of having been the cause of it.

Kaiba sat on the ground and pulled the priest's head up so that they were face to face once again. "Neither one of us should have had to go through that," Kaiba said, the words feeling a little more true now that he'd voiced the thought for a second time. "The fault lies with the bandits, not with us, so no apology is necessary."

The priest smiled, and Kaiba couldn't help a small smile of his own.

"Those are wise words," Seto said as he sat beside Kaiba. "What are you going to do now?"

Kaiba thought about the question for a moment. "Go on living," he finally said. "I have a brother to raise and a company to run. I don't have time to dwell on the past."

"That sounds like you," the priest said. "Don't get too busy that you bury the past, because, as your experience with your adoptive father should have shown you, your past will eventually break free of the chains you put it under."

The two men sat in silence for a moment, until Kaiba broke it.

"What's going to happen to you now?" Kaiba asked.

"The pharaoh is saying goodbye to his double at the moment. When he is finished, we will return to our time."

"Will you remember any of this?" Kaiba asked, motioning to the city around him.

"I don't know, but as long as you remember, it will be enough," the priest answered.

They both stood up, and the priest offered Kaiba one last bow. "It's time to go. Take care of yourself, Kaiba. I have a feeling that you'll find your way once again."

Kaiba smirked. "You should know that better than anyone," he said.

"Goodbye, Kaiba," the priest said.

"Goodbye, Seto," Kaiba said and the spirit faded into the night.

Kaiba watched the spot where the spirit had last stood and wondered what it had been like for the priest to know of a future that he would never live to see. How tantalizing had it been to touch something he knew he could never reach?

His driver arrived a short time later, and Kaiba instructed him to drive to the Moto's game shop. Once he'd arrived, he hadn't even gotten out of the car before the door to the residential part of the shop was opened and Mokuba came running towards him. As soon as Kaiba got out of the car, Mokuba threw his arms around his big brother. Kaiba's first instinct was to pull Mokuba away, and it took some effort to fight it and let Mokuba wrap his arms around Kaiba's waist. Mokuba's momentum caused both brothers to collide with the side of the car, and Kaiba couldn't entirely stop the grunt of pain as his injured hip hit the car.

"Brother, are you hurt?" Mokuba said.

He removed his arms from around Kaiba's waist and proceeded to pat his brother down. When he came upon the wet, bloody hip, Mokuba turned Kaiba towards the street light so that he could see the injury better.

"That bastard shot you!" Mokuba exclaimed as he fingered the hole in the fabric of the slacks.

"Its okay, Mokuba, it was only a graze," Kaiba said and patted his brother's head in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. "Mr. Moto cleaned and dressed the wound at the hospital."

"So you've already been to see them?" Mokuba asked.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "How else did you think I knew to come pick you up here?"

Mokuba's face flushed with embarrassment at the good-natured jibe. "Are you sure you're okay? Did Gozaburo injure you anywhere else?"

"Just bruises and scratches," Kaiba said as Mokuba noticed the scrape on his chin, "nothing that I can't recover from."

Both brothers looked at one another, Kaiba content to bask in his brother's concern, and Mokuba apparently just glad that Kaiba was still in one piece. Kaiba had no doubt that Mokuba would insist in cleaning up all of the small cuts once they got back to the mansion and decided that for once, he wouldn't fight the attention.

"So are you ready to go home?" Kaiba asked. "Do you need to go tell the idiots in there that you're leaving?"

Mokuba shrugged. "They're standing behind the door, so they know you're here. For once, they're being considerate and staying inside."

Kaiba glanced at the door and for the first time noticed the two shadows behind it.

"Don't burn the house down, mutt," Kaiba said, unable to keep from goading the blonde duelist.

"Shove it, you bastard," was Wheeler's reply.

Kaiba almost smiled at the familiarity of the exchange, but caught himself in time. Mokuba must have noticed the glint in his eyes, however, because Mokuba did smile.

"Good night Joey and Tristan," Mokuba called.

"Good night, Mokuba" both of them called out as both Kaiba brothers got into the car.

Just as Kaiba was about to shut the door, Wheeler's voice reached him.

"It's good to see you in one piece, Kaiba."

Kaiba's only response was a fractional nod of acknowledgement before he shut the door and instructed the driver to take them home.

**&&&&**

Yami got up from where he'd been sitting at the foot of Yugi's bed and walked around until he was next to his sleeping partner. Yugi looked much better than he had that afternoon, and Yami hated to think what the teenager had gone through to merit an overnight stay at the hospital. Yami had wanted to ask about what had gone on in that forest ever since Kaiba had returned the puzzle to Yugi, but he'd refrained for two reasons: he didn't want to interrupt Yugi's rest and he didn't feel like he'd regained the right to pry into Yugi's life. The last time he'd done so had led to their current, shaky situation and Yami didn't want to make it any worse.

Mr. Moto had fallen asleep on the chair beside the bed and was snoring softly. The man had to be exhausted, but so far had held up well under the circumstances. Yami was particularly impressed with Mr. Moto's tenacity when it came to Seto Kaiba. Yami had never seen anyone else treat Kaiba as Mr. Moto had, and he'd been gratified to see that the strong, honest, and caring disposition with which Mr. Moto had handled Kaiba had allowed the teenager to open up to the elder Moto when he'd needed it the most.

A new presence made itself known to Yami and he wasn't surprised to hear the pharaoh's voice when the man finally spoke.

"They've been through a lot these past few weeks, haven't they?"

Yami turned to find the pharaoh standing by the door. The man was looking at Yugi with a gentle expression on his face.

"He's one of a kind," Yami said. "If it weren't for his strength, I wouldn't be here."

"He is a very strong young man," the pharaoh said and turned to face Yami.

When the spirit saw the pharaoh's eyes, he could see that something was bothering the other man. It didn't take Yami long to remember how the pharaoh had reacted when he'd been told that Yami existed only through Yugi, and realized that the pharaoh must be remembering that conversation as well. Yami had been meaning to speak to him about the circumstances of his existence, the little he could remember, since that day, and he wouldn't get a better chance than the one he had now.

"Let's go somewhere else so we don't disturb them," Yami said, running a transparent hand over Yugi's hair.

Yami left the room and led his double to an outside waiting area located fairly close to Yugi's room. It was empty, which Yami was grateful for, since he couldn't travel very far from the puzzle on his own.

"I can imagine that you'd want to know how I ended up like this, a sprit tied to a Millennium Item," Yami said.

The pharaoh nodded slowly. "It is my understanding that if you misuse the items you are punished by entrapment in the darkness and solitude of the item you abused, left to slowly go mad."

Yami raised both eyebrows at the unexpected piece of news.

"You didn't know that?" the pharaoh asked, clearly perturbed. "That was one of the first rules of the use of the items, how can you forget that?"

The pharaoh's voice rose with his emotions and Yami couldn't help a sigh. He understood the strong reaction, however. He would have reacted the same way had their positions been reversed.

"I wish I was able to enlighten you about how I came to exist in the Millennium Puzzle, but my memories of my life in Egypt are all gone," Yami said, his voice a calm contrast to the pharaoh's. "My memories begin the moment Yugi put the puzzle together and I was once again able to roam the living world."

The thought of having no memories seemed to disturb the pharaoh even more. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it with a click. Yami opted to wait and let the pharaoh work out his thoughts.

"So you don't know anything about what happened to the kingdom?" the pharaoh asked. "If you ended up in the puzzle, something catastrophic had to have happened."

Yami closed the distance between himself and the pharaoh and offered the man a sincere smile. It had been hard for him to grasp the facts of his own existence, especially when he'd learned how it had more than likely come to pass. He could only imagine how hard it was for the pharaoh, who still lived and ruled Egypt.

"I don't know everything that happened, but I do know that the kingdom was in chaos. The power of the Millennium Items was somehow misused, and it would have led to the kingdom's destruction, had I not sacrifice myself to put a stop to it."

The pharaoh's face changed slightly at the explanation, and Yami smiled when he realized that he'd guessed right about the root of the pharaoh's distress.

"Whatever leads to the sealing of your soul in the Millennium Puzzle, it's not due to your negligence or abuse of the power entrusted to you. From what I have learned, it is a necessity to keep the kingdom in one piece."

The pharaoh studied Yami fiercely, as if looking for a lie or misdirection. When he was satisfied that there was none, he visibly relaxed.

"I love my people and would do anything for them and for my kingdom," the pharaoh said. "It was distressing to think that I'd fallen so far out of line that I'd misuse the power I inherited from my father."

The passion and certainty the pharaoh said those words with touched a part of Yami that he rarely acknowledged, because it was so full of questions that he had no answers to. What would it be like to know, without a shadow of a doubt, where you came from and what you were destined for? He was sorely tempted to ask the pharaoh about his life, about his family, but decided that those were not things he needed to know, at least not yet. His journey was still alongside Yugi, and together they would find the answers he was seeking.

"Do you know why you're here?" the pharaoh asked. "Is there something you hope to accomplish?"

Yami took one of the empty chairs closer to the balcony and looked out over the sleeping city below. He'd asked himself that question many times during many restless nights, but he had yet to come up with an answer that rang true to him, because he was torn between the life he was fighting to recover and the life he'd built with Yugi.

"I seek my past," Yami finally answered. "I want to know who I was and how I got to be here, but I also seek to protect those that I've sworn my allegiance to in this life."

The pharaoh came to stand beside Yami, but Yami did not turn to look at his double.

"Those are two very different goals," the pharaoh said. "I wish you luck in finding your way and deciding your destiny."

Yami did look up then and was greeted by the pharaoh's sincere smile.

"You will return to your kingdom and your people. Make sure that you do what you can to ensure their safety," Yami said.

High Priest Seto chose that moment to appear, and he gave Yami a low bow. "I wish you well, Pharaoh," the high priest said to Yami. "May the gods bless your journey."

Yami stood in front of the two men and also bowed. "Goodbye," he said and the two visitors vanished.

Yami felt a pang of loss already as he looked out at the city. They would return to their lives and Yami needed to return to his as well. He turned to leave and was surprised to see Yugi standing by the door. He had stepped out onto the waiting area and looked as if here were still half asleep. There was a blanket wrapped around Yugi's shoulders, but he was still shivering in the chilly, night air.

"You shouldn't be out of bed," Yami chided, then frowned when he realized how that sounded.

Yugi smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "I probably shouldn't, and if grandfather finds out, I'm in big trouble," he said as he walked closer to Yami and pulled the blanket tighter over his shoulders.

"Our visitors have left, haven't they?" Yugi asked, and Yami wondered how much of the conversation with the pharaoh, if any, Yugi had overheard. "Seto stopped by to say goodbye," Yugi added.

"Really?" Yami asked, a bit surprised to hear that.

Yugi's eyes softened a bit as he thought back to the conversation. "He wanted to thank me for the support I've given Kaiba," Yugi said. "Like Kaiba, the priest takes his responsibilities very seriously, and he feels that he was the reason Kaiba was attacked. He told me that since he couldn't be here to help Kaiba deal with the consequences, he was glad that I was willing to stand by him and offer my help."

Yugi paused for a moment and sighed. "I hope to be able to live up to the priest's expectations."

"You've done more for Kaiba than anyone else could have," Yami said, "both here and in Egypt. I don't think that you have anything to worry about."

They lapsed into uncomfortable silence, during which neither looked at the other. When the silence became unbearable, Yami finally spoke.

"Why are you out here, Yugi?" Yami asked.

Yugi took the seat Yami had recently vacated and brought his knees up to his chest. He coughed a couple of times, and Yami was tempted to tell Yugi again that he shouldn't be out here in the cold.

"I felt your distress and needed to see what was causing it," Yugi finally answered. "It's difficult to not know what is hurting someone who is as important to me as you are. When I saw the pharaoh, it answered my question."

Yami was tempted to bring up the incident that was keeping Yugi at arm's length and remind him that he'd felt the same way when he'd gone into Yugi's soul room, but decided that it wouldn't be in their best interest to argue about that incident right now, when Yugi wasn't entirely healthy. Yugi seemed to be reading his mind however, because he was the one who brought it up.

"What you saw when you went into my soul room that night was not everything," Yugi said, and Yami could tell that it was taking a lot out of Yugi to say those words. "Watching those men… hearing Kaiba screaming… and then finally seeing him give up when they threatened me was the most horrible thing I've ever had to experience," Yugi continued. "I couldn't do anything and I couldn't convince them to stop what they were doing, so I…"

Yugi trailed off, and Yami could see tears shining in Yugi's eyes. The tears did not fall, however, and Yami felt a sense of loss as he watched Yugi fight off his emotions and school his face into a mask that looked alien on Yugi's normally expressive face. The experience had changed Yugi in a way that Yami couldn't imagine but could already see taking effect.

"I killed them, all of them," Yugi said, his voice eerily devoid of emotion. "Somehow, I tapped into the power of the puzzle and committed murder."

Yami was momentarily speechless. Murder was not a word he had ever imagined Yugi would use to describe his actions, and Yami wasn't sure how to react to that right away. The images he'd seen in Yugi's soul room suddenly came back to him, and he could clearly recall seeing Yugi digging what Yami now knew were graves. He didn't have to ask Yugi who he'd killed, because he could also clearly remember how Kaiba had looked right after he'd been raped.

"I didn't want you to find out, which is why I shut you out," Yugi continued when Yami didn't speak. "I'd also promised Kaiba that I would keep what I'd witnessed a secret. He's had so many betrayals in his life and I didn't want to become another one, so I vowed to keep the secret with him. I failed miserably and betrayed him anyway."

Yami kneeled in front of Yugi's chair, made his hand as solid as he could while not in his or Yugi's soul room, and tilted Yugi's head up so that he could see his partner's violet eyes.

"The betrayal was mine, Yugi," Yami said without releasing Yugi's chin. "I was worried about you and the only option I thought I had at the time was to find out for myself what you wouldn't tell me. It was wrong, and I am very sorry for breaking your trust like that. You didn't betray Kaiba, you kept your promise."

With his chin in Yami's hands, Yugi could not turn away. He held Yami's gaze, and the spirit had no trouble seeing the pain that Yugi was trying hard to bury.

"You'll be glad to know that Kaiba understands that our concern for his well being was what motivated our actions at that time," Yami added. "He said so after Gozaburo had been killed."

A ghost of a smile graced Yugi's lips. "I'm glad," he said.

"The Millennium Puzzle reacts to its wearer's desire to protect, Yugi," Yami said, hoping to alleviate some of the guilt Yugi was undoubtedly feeling over the deaths he caused, even if they were well deserved. "You wanted to save Kaiba, and the puzzle helped you do it. Your actions ensured that you and Kaiba survived the ordeal and are still here to tell about it."

"Those men are still dead, Yami," Yugi said, his voice louder and slightly more forceful.

"Yes they are, and their deaths are a burden you will carry for the rest of your life," Yami said. "However, I can also say that every time you see or talk to Kaiba, or see him interact with his brother, you won't regret having made that choice."

Yugi stared at Yami for a long time, until he finally nodded.

"I am sorry for violating your privacy, Yugi," Yami said. "It was not my intention to hurt or betray you," Yami said and released Yugi's chin.

"I know, Yami. I can't give you a hard time when I would have done the same if our roles had been reversed," Yugi said and got up. "We should probably head back, before grandpa wakes up and comes to drag us back inside."

Yami smiled at his partner as they made their way inside.

**&&&&**

_Four weeks later_

Mokuba rushed out of school and scanned the parking lot for the car that was always waiting for him. He came to a stop when he realized that it wasn't there. Thinking he'd missed it, he scanned the parking lot once again, but didn't see it the second time either. Before he had a chance to worry, his brother's convertible pulled into the parking lot and took its place in the line of cars waiting to pick up children. Mokuba grinned widely at the unexpected surprise and ran over.

"Big brother, what a surprise!" he said and settled into the passenger's seat, still grinning. "Where did you send the driver off to this time?"

"He's in Nagoya and probably won't return until tomorrow afternoon," his brother replied.

Mokuba frowned. "What's in Nagoya?"

His brother didn't answer until they were safely away from the school and back on the main road.

"A certain game designer that's been in the news a lot lately, whom I've managed to hire," Seto replied, the triumph clearly in his voice.

Mokuba's jaw dropped. "You hired Isao Matsumoto?" Mokuba asked.

Isao, over the past year, had proven to be a very talented game designer with a start up company who'd vowed to give Kaiba Corporation some competition. The two games his company had managed to release had been popular, but nowhere near the popularity that Kaiba Corporation games had. When Isao had first made his claims against Kaiba Corporation, Seto had said that the man was intelligent, but lacked the funding to really threaten them.

"Keep your friend close and your enemies closer?" Mokuba added when his brother didn't reply to his previous question.

Seto shook his head. "This time, it's not a matter of enemies," he said. "Isao is very intelligent, and he has a strong desire to make great games, he just doesn't have the financial backing to do so. Kaiba Corporation's assets will allow him the freedom to create the games he really wants to make."

"While ensuring that they're released with our name, not his," Mokuba added, smiling slyly.

His brother turned to him and gave him a half smile. "Let it never be said that I'm a lousy business man."

Mokuba grinned at his brother's sharp thinking and careful planning. It was great to see him finally get back fully into the business of making games. The aftermath of Gozaburo's meddling in the business had been severe. Most of the deals he made had been back-room deals crafted and agreed upon in secrecy. When Seto refused to honor them, the people involved couldn't outright accuse him of breach of contract, but they had been more than willing to attack his company in other ways, and bad publicity was never good for any business. The few military companies with which Gozaburo had brokered legitimate deals had been ready to sue, and it had taken a lot of persuasion, and some bribing, to keep everything under control. The process had taken a lot out of his brother, which hadn't helped with the more personal issues that Seto had also been struggling with.

Nightmares, which were a constant companion to his brother, suddenly became more severe. Seto started to work constantly in an attempt to stave off sleep, but that only worked for a few days. When Seto finally succumbed to exhaustion, the nightmares would appear. Mokuba wouldn't have known about them if not for the fact that Seto had fallen asleep in the den one night and had inadvertently woken Mokuba up when he'd started to scream. Seto, upon waking and fining Mokuba's arms wrapped around him, had forced Mokuba away from him and yelled that he didn't want to be touched.

His brother had never been one for a lot of physical contact, but Mokuba had always been able to wake Seto up from a nightmare with a touch, whether by putting his hands on Seto's cheeks or by hugging him. Seto had always known it was Mokuba and had never reacted violently, until that night. His brother had apologized profusely for the outburst, and Mokuba had demanded to know what was going on. Seto had cringed at the request, and Mokuba had been so worried that he'd pushed until Seto admitted that something had happened in Egypt, but that he wasn't able to tell Mokuba what it was. Surprised that Seto had admitted even that much, Mokuba had taken the explanation at face value and let it drop.

A few days later he'd noticed that his brother was spending a lot of time with Yugi Moto. It was unusual, but his brother's nightmares seemed to subside after he'd been around the other duelist. Mokuba had been hurt that his brother couldn't confide in him when he could clearly confide in Yugi, and he'd made the mistake of mentioning it. Seto had felt guilty when Mokuba had confronted him, but had explained that, since Yugi had shared the experience with him, he hadn't exactly confided in Yugi either.

"Today is your study group day, right?" Seto asked, bringing Mokuba out of his musings.

"Yes, it's at Shin's house," Mokuba replied.

He noticed for the first time that Seto's hands were tight around the steering wheel, making his knuckles white.

"Is everything okay, brother?" Mokuba asked as they turned onto the street that led to Shin's house.

"It's just been one of those days," his brother replied as he pulled up in front of their destination. "Don't worry, Mokuba, I'll be fine."

Mokuba wished that there was more he could do, but he trusted his brother to handle this situation in the way he thought best.

"The session ends at 7:30," Mokuba said, "and Shin's mom usually makes us dinner."

Mokuba stepped out of the car and leaned in through the open window. He put a hand on his brother's arms and inwardly smiled when his brother didn't flinch.

"I know you'll be fine, but I still worry," Mokuba said. "Make sure you eat dinner, okay?"

A small smile appeared on Seto's face. "I will, Mokuba. I'll see you at 7:30."

Mokuba stepped away from the car and watched his brother drive away. Something was definitely going on with Seto today, and Mokuba hoped that his brother's next destination was somewhere he could find a little bit of peace.

**&&&&**

"What can I use this card for? It doesn't look too powerful."

Yugi smiled at the boy standing on the other side of the counter, holding one of the cards out of the pack of Duel Monster cards he'd just bought. When he'd come into the shop, the boy had said that he'd just recently picked up the game, and then he'd promptly fallen silent when he realized that he was talking to Yugi Moto, the Duel Monsters champion. Yugi had found the adoration in the boy's eyes embarrassing, and had managed to get the boy talking again by showing him where the card packs were and asking him more about how he got into the game. Once the boy had realized that Yugi was just another teenager, he hadn't stopped talking.

"This is an excellent defense card," Yugi said, taking the Giant Soldier of Stone out of the boy's hand and holding it up to the light. The bell at the front of the shop rang, signaling that another customer had arrived, but Yugi decided to finish the conversation with his current customer before addressing the new arrival. "When you're in a situation where you're up against a more powerful monster, using this will give you some time to pull a more powerful summon from your deck, or a magic or trap card to use against your opponent," Yugi added.

"Defense is for wimps," came a familiar voice from the boy's other side.

Yugi looked up to find Seto Kaiba leaning over the counter to look at the card Yugi was holding. The boy, who suddenly realized that he was surrounded by not only one champion, but two, took a step back and gaped at Kaiba.

"You should use this as a sacrifice for a stronger monster," Kaiba added as he handed the card to the stunned boy. "All defense will get you is a long, drawn out death at the hands of a more powerful opponent. Wouldn't you rather direct the match instead of waiting to see what your opponent is going to do?"

The boy was too stunned to reply, and Yugi had to shake his head at Kaiba's philosophy.

In Duel Monsters, like in life, no one made Seto Kaiba wait.

"Either strategy can work," Yugi conceded, "but which one you use will depend on what else is in your deck. Remember, all of the cards must work in harmony or they won't work at all."

The boy looked down at his card, up and Kaiba, and then at Yugi. He smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Thank you, I'll keep that in mind," the boy quickly said and practically ran out of the shop.

"We're going to go out of business if you keep scaring off my customers," Yugi chided as Kaiba set his briefcase on the counter.

"They won't come back if you give them bad dueling strategies," Kaiba replied.

Yugi grinned. "Just because I don't believe in sacrifices as much as you do doesn't mean that my strategy is any worse than yours."

Kaiba just grunted in response and picked up a couple of the packs Yugi had left on the counter. Yugi took the time to examine his fellow duelist, and the tension in Kaiba's shoulders and his clenched jaw told Yugi that Kaiba's visit wasn't just a social call.

"How is the day treating you, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.

He'd learned to phrase the question in the right way so that what Yugi was asking about was clear to both parties. Kaiba, for his part, had learned to answer the question truthfully, as he did for no one else about this particular subject.

"It's brought unexpected, and unshakeable, reasons to think," was all Kaiba said in response.

A week after Gozaburo's second death, Kaiba had come by the school after classes had let out and asked if Yugi had some free time. The intensity in Kaiba's eyes had prompted Yugi to immediately say that he was free, even though he'd promised his grandfather he'd watch the shop after school, and Kaiba had driven them to the docks. Kaiba hadn't made a move to get out of the car, and Yugi hadn't really known what to say, even though he had a fairly good idea what Kaiba wanted. He didn't want to pry, nor did he want to ruin the sacrifice Kaiba was making in coming to him in the first place, so he'd waited for Kaiba to make the first move. After several long minutes, it became apparent that Kaiba couldn't say what was on his mind, so Yugi decided that he'd make it so that Kaiba didn't have to.

"_Have you ever been to Dock 53?" Yugi asked. _

_Kaiba looked surprised at the question. "No," he said. "Is there something special about it?"_

"_Would you come with me to see it?" Yugi asked. _

_Kaiba, clearly confused, slowly nodded and got out of the car. Yugi led them to and then past Dock 53._

"_I thought you were taking me to Dock 53?" Kaiba asked. _

"_I am, but we're not there yet," Yugi replied and continued on his well-known path. _

_When they'd passed the dock, they came upon an outcropping of rock between Dock 53 and its neighbor. Yugi led them around the safety rail and down slippery rocks onto the beach below. He then turned right and headed for the mouth of a cave that was hidden in the shadows of the dock above._

"_I didn't know this was here," Kaiba said as they entered the cave. _

"_I found it by accident a few years ago when I was running away from Joey," Yugi said. "He wanted to beat me up and I hid in here until he got tired of looking for me. I don't think many people know about it, and I like to come here when I need some time alone."_

_Yugi plopped down on the sand and waited for Kaiba to do the same. When Kaiba was seated in front of him, Yugi smiled gently at him. _

"_If you so choose, whatever you say will stay in this place," Yugi said, remembering the offer of support and companionship he'd made Kaiba after he and Mokuba had pulled Yugi out of the river and saved his life. "You can also just enjoy the quiet," Yugi added. _

Kaiba had chosen not to say anything that day, but they'd stayed in the cave well into the evening. As Kaiba drove Yugi home, he extended his own invitation of support, and Yugi had taken him up on it a few times as well. What had been awkward and stilted at the beginning was starting to feel a little easier. They didn't always go to the cave, though it had become a favorite spot for both of them. Yugi's house and Kaiba's office were also becoming favorite spots.

"Grandpa, can you look after the shop for the rest of the day, I need to do my homework," Yugi called through the open door into the Moto's living area.

Grumbling preceded Mr. Moto's arrival at the shop. Yugi had to work to suppress his grin of amusement at his grandfather's antics.

"Hi, Kaiba," Mr. Moto said when he noticed that Kaiba was in the shop.

His grandfather had caught on very quickly to the reason for Kaiba's visits, even though he'd never let on. He'd taken his self-appointed role as adoptive guardian for Kaiba very seriously, so when Kaiba came to the shop, or when Yugi needed to leave the house, he didn't ask for an explanation, and had even made it a point to make afternoon snacks so that food was available on the rare occasion Kaiba accepted the offer of sustenance.

"Teenagers, they always have something better to do," his grandfather said, keeping up the appearance of an affronted, old man. "What is it this time, dueling?"

Yugi allowed the grin to grace his face. "Precalculus," Yugi replied as he slid off his stool.

His grandfather waved them out of the shop and Yugi closed the door behind them as they entered the living room.

"Precalculus?" Kaiba asked.

Yugi groaned. "If I don't figure out how to find limits, I'm going to fail the midterm," he said as he grabbed the backpack he'd discarded by the front door. He led Kaiba into the kitchen, where they dumped their stuff onto the table.

"My grandfather made rice balls," Yugi said, "would you like some and maybe some tea?"

Kaiba looked like he was going to refuse the offer, before he changed his mind. "I probably should eat something, or else Mokuba will lecture me about not taking care of myself."

Yugi couldn't help but smile at the image of the younger Kaiba lecturing the elder one. "Did he say that today?"

"When I dropped him off," Kaiba replied. "He's having dinner at a friend's house."

Kaiba didn't seem willing to elaborate, so Yugi didn't press the issue. He had a feeling that he was going to have to press Kaiba to talk at some point that afternoon and wanted to save his strength for the important stuff. He got the food and spread it out on the table where both of them could get what they wanted. He took his math book out of his bag and opened it to the appropriate chapter. When Kaiba was done booting up his computer and taking out the files he would need for whatever work he was going to do, Yugi pierced him with a stare.

"Too much thinking today?" Yugi asked.

Kaiba stalled by taking one of the rice balls and biting into it. He chewed slowly and his eyebrow rose in surprise.

"I'm always surprised that your grandfather's food is actually edible," Kaiba said.

Yugi kept his eyes trained on his visitor, letting Kaiba know that he expected an answer to the question, no matter how long it took Kaiba to give it to him. Pushing Seto Kaiba was generally not a good idea, but Yugi had learned over the past four weeks that sometimes Kaiba needed a nudge before he felt comfortable saying what he wanted to say. Once Kaiba had finished the rice ball, he finally spoke.

"Kaiba Corporation does business with a company in Egypt" Kaiba finally said and there was a sizable pause before he continued. "They're scouting locations for an expansion of their facilities and sent me some video of the places they're considering so I could offer my advice." Kaiba stopped messing with the file and instead placed his shaking hands, one on top of the other, on the tabletop. His eyes had locked onto a spot somewhere above Yugi's right shoulder, and Yugi could see that, even though Kaiba was desperately trying to remain detached, there was strong emotion in his eyes.

"There was something in one of those videos," Yugi said when the silence got too long and it became apparent that Kaiba was not going to continue. "Are they scouting areas in the desert?"

Kaiba's eyes widened slightly and focused on Yugi with an intensity that Yugi had gotten used to over the past few weeks. He finally nodded.

"One of the locations looked just like the bandit's camp, down to the tents set up all around it," Kaiba said, his voice just barely above a whisper. "I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since, no matter how busy I make myself."

Yugi took a deep breath and slowly released it. He could certainly understand what that was like, as he had occasions where something would remind him of that day and he'd focus on it for the rest of the day, or until he talked to his grandfather, Yami, or Kaiba.

"Once the memories hit, they don't want to let go, do they?" Yugi said. "Everything is still so raw and it probably will be for a long time. It's okay to remember and to be scared about the memories, though. If you deal with them at the time, they won't be as powerful. If you try to bury them with work or school, they'll come at you when you're least expecting them."

"It sounds like you're speaking from experience," Kaiba said with a little less edge to his voice.

Yugi pierced Kaiba with a stare. "Well, you do remember that time I barged into your office at Kaiba Corporation convinced that I'd killed you, don't you?"

Kaiba nodded, his eyes darkening slightly at the memory.

"I fell asleep in class and dreamed about that day. I was so convinced I'd killed you and nothing Yami said could get me to believe otherwise. I had to see you to believe that it was all just a dream."

Kaiba had been in the middle of a meeting, but when he'd seen Yugi, he'd shoved everyone out of the office and had let Yugi sit on the couch and watch him work until Yugi was convinced that everything was okay.

"Has it gotten any easier?" Kaiba asked.

"A little bit," Yugi replied. "I don't dream about it every night anymore. Has it gotten easier for you?"

"Some days I don't even remember it happened," Kaiba answered after a pause, "while other days, like today, it's all I can think about."

"One step at a time," Yugi said, "one day at a time."

"Yami said something similar after Gozaburo died," Kaiba noted.

Yugi chuckled. "He's a wise spirit, but don't tell him I said that. He'll get a big head."

"Like he doesn't have one already," Kaiba said. "Limits are fairly simple, you know," Kaiba added, pointing to the open book in front of Yugi.

"Sure, if you're a genius. People like me, however, need a bit of help," Yugi said and ran his hands through his hair.

"Show me what you're working on and we'll see if we can get them straight in your head for the midterm," Kaiba said and pushed his laptop aside in favor of Yugi's math book.

Yugi flipped a couple of pages until he found the particular problem he was stuck on. Kaiba pulled some paper out of Yugi's notebook and proceeded to work the problem. He snuck a glance at Kaiba and couldn't help but smile at the fact that there was a little less tension in Kaiba's shoulders and his eyes were a little less shadowed.

"What are you smiling about? You should be paying attention," Kaiba said, pointing to the solution he'd worked out.

"Sorry," Yugi said, "I got a little distracted. What was that?"

It took a few hours, but Kaiba managed to get the concept of the limit into Yugi's head. When Kaiba left that night, he told Yugi that if he paid more attention in class, he'd actually learn what his teachers were trying to teach him. Yugi could only grin at the comment, because it signified that Kaiba was his old self again.

_**This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. It is, instead, the end of the beginning **_

_** Anonymous**_

**&&&&**

One last time: don't forget to leave a review on your way out!


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